MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATIONS OF CULTURED AND WILD Oreochromis niloticus FROM IBADAN AND KAINJI IN NIGERIAB

Abstract

This study investigated the morphological variations of wild and cultured Oreochromis niloticus from Kainji and
Ibadan in Nigeria; wild fishes were collected from various landing sites of the Lake Kainji and Asejire, Ibadan.
Cultured fish were collected from fish farms with known breeding history in the two environment, samples were
stored under ice and transported to the laboratory for morphological characterization. Results obtained reveals
significant higher values in most morphometric parameters of the cultured specimen from the different environments
compared to their wild counterparts, however condition factor of the fish were higher for fishes in the wild (4.41
and 4.16 for Ibadan and Kainji respectively) compared to those in the cultured environment (2.94 and 3.44 for
Ibadan and Kainji respectively). Discriminate analysis showed clear overlap of meristic data for the different
environments; however in morphometric parameters, fish from the Lake Kainji slightly overlap with its culture
counterpart from the same environment but clearly separate itself from those from Ibadan.