Abstract
Food and feeding habits of Barbus bynni (Forsskål, 1775) were studied in Lake Abaya, Ethiopia, from January to February, 2010 (dry season) and May to June, 2010 (wet season). From a total of 292 fish samples, 251 (86.0%) contained food in their guts. Macrophytes, insects and detritus were the dominant food items both during the dry and wet seasons. Macrophytes and detritus occurred in 78.1 and 73.3% of the guts, and constituted 30.4 and 29.3% of the total food volume, respectively while insects occurred in 72.5% of the guts and accounted for 29.2% of the total volume. Zooplankton occurred in 37.5% of the guts but they constituted only 4.6% of the total volume of food categories. No seasonality in diet was observed, however, there was an ontogenetic change in diet. In juveniles, the contribution of food of animal origin was relatively high, whereas in adults the contribution of plant materials was dominating. The relationships between total length (TL) and total weight (TW) of males, females and both sexes combined were curvilinear and statistically significant (P < 0.001). The relationships between TL and fork length (FL), TL and standard length (SL) and FL and SL were all linear and statistically significant (P < 0.001). The growth pattern of B. bynni in Lake Abaya was allometric because the slope of the relationship (b) was 3.25, which is a value considerably higher than 3. Key words: Barbus bynni, diet composition, feeding habits, Lake Abaya, morphometric relationships.
Highlights
The Nile barb Barbus bynni (Forsskål, 1775) is a benthopelagic freshwater fish widely distributed in theNile system and in lakes that were once connected to the Nile (Golubtsov and Krysanov, 1993; Bailey, 1994)
Omo River and the rivers that drain into the Nile system
1,200 g total weight (TW) were considered for food and feeding habit study
Summary
The Nile barb Barbus bynni (Forsskål, 1775) is a benthopelagic freshwater fish widely distributed in the. Nile system and in lakes that were once connected to the Nile (Golubtsov and Krysanov, 1993; Bailey, 1994). In. Ethiopia, the species is widely distributed in the Southern. Ethiopia with the southern rift valley lakes area indicated (b), maps of. Lakes Abaya and Chamo with the sampling area in Lake Abaya shown (c). African barbs belong to the genus Barbus and are divided into small and large barbs. The division is supported by cytogenetics, the smaller barbs having 50 chromosomes while the large barbs have 150 (Berrebi and Valiushok, 1998).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
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 callMore From: International Journal of Fisheries and Aquaculture
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
