Morphological Characterization of Wild and Cultured <i>Clarias gariepinus</i> (Burchell 1822) using Principal Component and Cluster Analyses

Abstract

The study was designed to describe the phenotypic variations in morphometric and meristic characters of Clarias gariepinus between two populations in different towns in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Fish samples were collected from Ero dam (wild population at Ikun Ekiti) and Christeve Aquaculture (cultured population at Iyin Ekiti) using cast net and dragging net. The samples were brought to Zoology Laboratory in Ekiti State University and measurements for morphometrics (24) and meristics (11) of each of the investigated catfish specimen were taken using standard procedures. To test the significance of morphological differences between the wild and cultured populations, all the data on morphometrics and meristics were subjected to student's t-test at 5% level of significance. Principal Component Analyses and cluster analyses were then employed to analyse the data obtained from the morphological traits using Paleontological Statistics (PAST) software. Significant differences were observed in the means of the morphometric and meristic traits. The multivariate analysis also showed differences between the studied populations. These differences revealed the occurrence of heterogeneity between the two populations. Higher variations and sex related variations were also observed in the wild than in cultured population. The result show the potential for commercial purposes of the population. However, genetic markers can be used in further studies to confirm the phenotypic diversity observed and assess the amount of variation in these populations.

Morphometric and genetic diversity of an African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) population from Southeast Algeria

“…Hence, the measurements of each of the morphometric traits of each catfish standardised to fish size (SL) followed the protocol of Reist (1985) to remove size effect as follows: Mn = (Mo/SL)%, where: Mn is the corrected size, Mo is the original measurement (total length), and SL is the standard length. However, the measurements of each of the meristic traits were not standardised (Ola‐oladimeji et al, 2016).…”

“…However, the measurements of each of the meristic traits were not standardised (Ola-oladimeji et al, 2016).…”

Phenotypic Diversities of Four Populations of Clarias Gariepinus (Siluriformes, Clariidae) Obtained from Ogun and Ondo State Waterbodies in South-Western Nigeria

“…PCA on the morphometric and meristic data were evaluated. Population centroids with 95 % ellipses obtained from the PCA scatter diagram were used to observe relationships among populations (Turan et al, 2005;Oladimeji et al, 2015;Ola-Oladimeji et al, 2016). PCA loadings were used to show the traits with the highest variation within the population Ola-Oladimeji et al, 2016) using the unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean for phenogram or dendrogram grouping reported by Sneath and Sokal (1973).…”