Age, growth and fishery biology of cichlid spp. in Abu-Zaabal Lakes,Egypt | ||||
| Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries | ||||
| Article 7, Volume 13, Issue 2, April 2009, Page 101-116 PDF (207.13 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejabf.2009.2035 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
Kariman Shalloof ; Alaa El- Far
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| National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, 101Kaser El-Eini St., Cairo, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| The present investigation aimed to study species composition, condition factor, growth and feeding habits of Orechromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758), Orechromis aureus (Steindachner, 1864), Tilapia zillii (Gervais, 1848) and Sarotherdon galilaeus (Linnaeus, 1758) in Abu- Zaabal Lakes, Egypt. The abundance of different species was seasonally fluctuated. It was found that O. aureus is the most common species constituting about 50.0%, followed by S. galilaeus, while O. niloticus ranked as the 3rd species in the total catch. The highest value of the exponent "b" of length-weight relationship and condition factor "K" was recorded for T. zillii and the lowest for O. aureus. The valve of (K) was inversely related to the size of O. aureus and O. niloticus, and tends to be fairly constant in T. zillii and S. galilaeus. All cichlid species attained their highest growth rates in length during the first year of life, after which a gradual decline was noticed with further increase in age. O. niloticus had the highest growth rate than the other three species. The parameters of Von Bertalanffy growth model were estimated as L∞ = 34.59, 45.23, 39.88 and 30.65 cm while, k = 0.1336, 0.074, 0.0873 and 0.1692 y -1 and to = - 2.09; - 2.49; - 2.01 and - 0.75 year for O. niloticus, O. aureus, T. zillii and S. galilaeus, respectively. Gut analysis of O. aureus, T. zillii and S. galilaeus revealed that the major food items were detritus, diatoms, green algae, animal derivatives, sand particles and rotifers. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Abu- Zaabal Lakes; O. niloticus; O. aureus; T. zillii; S. galilaeus; Age; Growth; Feeding habits | ||||
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