Abstract
This study was conducted to study the distribution, abundance and diversity of the cichlids in the New Calabar River, Nigeria. A total of 1073 cichlids belonging to ten species and seven genera ( Coptodon guineensis , C. zillii , C. dageti , Pelmatolapia mariae , Hemichromis fasciatus , Pelvicachromis taeniatus , Chomidotilapia guntheri , Tylochromis sudanensis , Sarotherodon galilaeus and S. melanotheron ) were collected from three sampling stations between February and July, 2017. The most abundant species, in terms of number, was C. guineensis comprising 33.3% of all the number of species recorded followed by C. zillii (19%) and S. galilaeus (16.7%) while in terms of weight the dominant cichlids were C. guineensi (38.4%), C. zillii (19.6%) and S. melanotheron (12.9%). Five species, C. guineensis , S. melanotheron , S. galilaeus , C. dageti and C. zillii were recorded throughout the months of study. The Shannon-Weaver diversity index was found the highest (1.5) at Station 1 and the lowest (0.93) at Station 3 while Pielou’s evenness index was the highest (0.77) at Station 1.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call