Length weight relationship of two marine catfishes Plicofollis tenuispinis (Day) and Plicofollis dussumieri (Valenciennes) from Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Thinspine sea catfish (Plicofollis tenuispinis) and Blacktip Sea Catfish (Plicofollis dussumieri) are the common catfish species of Andhra Pradesh coast of India. Length weight relationship study was conducted on these two species for which monthly sampling was done for two years from September 2012 to March 2014. A total of 429 secimens of P. tenuispinis and 393 secimens of P. dussumieri were collected from fishing boats of Vishakhapatnam fish landing centre, Andhra Pradesh. The regression coefficient values (b) in this study for male P. tenuispinis was 3.013 which indicates the growth was almost near to isometric in nature whereas for females and combined (both male and female together) were 2.837 and 2.934 respectively which indicates negatively allometric growth and regression coefficient values for male, female and combined sexes of P. dussumieri were 2.832, 2.872 and 2.845 respectively which indicates negatively allometric growth for both the sexes and pooled as well.