ABSTRACT

This study examined the morphometric and meristic characters of the hybrids of female Heterobranchus longI1is crossed with male c/arias gariepinus. Twenty specimens of the hybrids which were about year old were collected from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, fish farm. The morphometric features examined included all the external measi. rable characters and, while some of the meristic characters like the dorsal fin rays iiumber, pectoral fin rays number and anal fin rays number were counted. The result showed that the twenty specimells comprised of eight (8) males and twlve (12) females. A correlation matrix was generated to evaluate the relationshiç between the various characters. Significant linear relationships (p<O.05) were observed between the various characters. Total length and dorsal fin length had a significant positive correlation (r) of 0.9815 while the relationship between the total length and adipose fin length of —0.021 was negatively correlated but not significantly different. A consideration of the various characters based on sex showed no significant differences (p>O.05) except in pectoral fin length and caudal fin length where the males had larger significant mean values over tho;e of the females. The males had a mean value of 3.5 ± 0.8cm for pectoral fin ler.gth as against 2.83 ± 0.5cm for females. In caudal fin length the males had a gi eater mean value of 5.8 ±1.2cm while females had 4.60± 0.9cm.