Length-weight relationships of Mystus cavasius with special reference to body morphometric characters from river Chenab, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study focused on the length-weight relationships of freshwater catfish, Mystus cavasius in relation to their different morphometric characters. 100 specimens of M. cavasius were collected from downstream of Qadirabad barrage, Chenab river, Pakistan. The total length ranged from 5.90-17.80cm with mean 12.13±0.22 and body weight ranged from 2.00-42.0g with mean 17.75±0.70. The regression coefficient (b) was 2.71 indicating negative allometric growth of this fish. Standard, fork length; head length, width; body depth, girth; pre, post-dorsal lengths and length of caudal peduncle were found to be highlycorrelatedwithincreasingtotal lengthandbodyweight(r=0.866;p˂0.01).Thissmallsizedcatfish is heavily targeted by local fisher community and fishermen. To the author’s best knowledge, the results of this study will provide baseline information on this potentially important small indigenous catfish.