Fish Species Diversity and Abundance in Dadin Kowa Reservoir, Gombe State, Nigeria

Bara’atu, A and Vandi, P

 

Full Length Research Paper  I Published September,2018

 

Journal of Agricultural Science and Food Technology  Vol. 4 (7), pp.134-144.

 

ABSTRACT

 

The fish abundance of River Dadin kowa, Gombe state was studied for six months (July-December 2015). Fish samples caught from the three selected sites of the reservoir were identified using a standard taxonomical key and recorded. A total of 355 individual fish made of 20 species from 12 distinct families were recorded. The result also revealed that families Bagridae had the highest number of species, followed by families Cichlidae, Citharinadne, Claridae, Mochochidae, Mormyridae and Polypteridae with two (2) species each. The remaining families (Cyprinidae, Gymnarchidae, Malapterudae, Osteoglosidae and Schilbidae) had only one species representing each of them.Oreochromis niloticus, Clarias lazera and Bagrus bayad macropterus, had 12.7%, l1.3% and 10.7% respectively, of the total fish species identified. Auchenoglanis biscutatus, Synodontis batensoda and cithrinus citharus had 8.7%, 7.3% and 7.0% identified respectively.Cithrinuslatus and Mormyrus rume had 6.5% and 5.4% species identified respectively. Schilbe mytus and mormyrus macropthalmus had 4.5% each. Tilapia galileaus, Labeo senegalensis,clarias gariepinus, Heterotis niloticus and Bagarus docmac had 6 4.2%, 3. 4% 2.8%, 2.3% and 1.7% respectively. The remaining fish species Gymnarchus niloticus polypterus senegalus and protepterus annectens had 1.4% each. The lowest specie identified is Malapterus electricus with 1.1%. This could be explained by the fact that the lake ecology is yet to stabilize.

KeyWords: Fish Species, Diversity, Dadin Kowa, Oreochromis niloticus, Bagrus, Gombe.

 

Full Text-PDF