Morphometric, meristic characters and their relationships in Channa punctatus (Bloch) from River Indus near Jamshoro Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study on the morphometric measurements and their relationship in Channa punctatus (Bloch) was based on 360 fish specimen collected from river Indus during March to August 2010. The standard length, lateral line length, tail fin length, dorsal fin length, pectoral fin length, girth and head length of experimental fish were found to be linear with the total length, while ventral fin (r = 0.99), pelvic fin length (r =0.99) and gape of mouth (r = 0. 99) parameters showed highly correlated with TL /HL respectively in case of male. In case of female the standard length, lateral line length, pelvic fin length, dorsal fin length, pectoral fin length and head length found to be linear. While parameters like girth (r =0.99) and tail fin length (r = 0.99) were found to be highly correlated with the total length. The six meristic characters have been counted, dorsal fin rays, ventral fin rays, pectoral fin rays, pelvic fin rays, tail fin rays, and lateral line scales count. The meristic counts did not show any significant difference between male and female. It is therefore concluded that the morphometric and meristic counts in the present study did not showed and significant difference in male and female except in pelvic fin length, ventral fin length and gape of mouth and tail fin length and girth measurement in male and female respectively. The females were found to be more pot-bellied and broader than male; male was found to be slim body. It was also inferred that there is a single homogeneous stock exists of this species in river Indus