Assessment of Morphometric and Meristic Characterization of Silver Catfish (Bagrus bayad) from Northeast Nigeria

Abstract

Morpho-meristic analysis in fish provide crucial information on species differentiation, population structure and evolution. This research was carried out to study the morphological characteristics of Bagrus bayad, from three locations in the North-east Nigeria, using morphometric measurements and meristic counts. A total number of ninety (90) freshly caught samples of B. bayad were randomly selected and bought from commercial fishermen at the landing sites (Njoboliyo Reservoir, Lau Reservoir and Dadin Kowa Dam) between June and August, 2024. The results revealed that all the morphometric characters of B. bayad from the three locations varied, whereas some meristic counts including mean number of rays on pectoral fin (9.07±0.94, 8.83±, 9.07±0.94), anal fin ray (11.53±1.11, 11.08±0.77, 11.53±1.11), caudal fin ray (19.63±0.33, 19.77±0.30, 19.58±0.23) and pelvic fin ray 1 (6.00±0.00,6.00±0.00, 6.00±0.00) and pelvic ray count 2 (6.00±0.00, 6.00±0.00, 6.00±0.00) respectively were constant. The principal component analysis revealed LAU reservoir had the highest average body weight (789.54g) in comparison to the other locations. The study highlights significant morphological characters and principal component analysis (PCA) confirmed that weight and length are the primary distinguishing factors among population.