Biometric Characteristics and Condition Factors of Clarias gariepinus and Hepsetus odoe from Three Major Reservoirs of Ekiti- state, Southwest Nigeria

The study was carried out between July to October 2018. 50 Clarias gariepinus from Ero, Egbe and Ado-Ekiti reservoirs and 66 Hepsetus odoe from Egbe and Ado-Ekiti reservoirs (not present in Ero- reservoir), Ekiti-State, Southwest, Nigeria, respectively. The fish samples were collected directly from fishermen at the bank of each reservoir. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. The mean body weight and total length of Clarias gariepinus were 319.13± 152.18a, 379.60 ± 268.40b, 542.11 ± 159.38c and 35.76 ± 7.64a, 34.67 ± 9.55a and 42.47 ± 4.02b from Ero, Egbe and Ado respectively. The mean body weight and total length of Hepsetus odoe were 193.79±83.80a, 192.87±80.62a and 28.56±3.13a, 28.81±6.09a from Egbe and Ado respectively. The results recorded on the mean body weights and total lengths of C. gariepinus and H. odoe from the populations are statistically similar. There are morphologically similarities between and among the three populations. Principal component analyses and cluster analyses were further used to determine the closeness of the morphological characters using paleontological statistics (PAST) software. The condition factors (K) values for C. gariepinus are 0.7 ± 0.2, 0.9 ± 0.3 and 0.7 ± 0.2 from Ero, Egbe and Ado reservoirs respectively. The condition factors values are not significantly different from one another. And for H. odoe were 0.008 ± 0.002 and 0.74 ± 0.04 from Egbe and Ado respectively. It showed that the populations are not well fed. There is need to determine the condition factor(s) which favours the growth and development of the fish from Ado (Ureje), Egbe and Ero reservoirs.