Relationship Between Fish Species Abundance and Physico-chemical Parameters of Tagwai Lake, Minna, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the temporal variations, in terms of physico-chemical parameters as well as the fish species abundance in Tagwai Lake, Minna, Nigeria and establish a relationship between both parameters using Canonical correspondence analysis ,from January 2013 to December, 2014. The results of the physico-chemical parameters investigated revealed that the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) ranged from 6.60±0.75 (mg/l) to 12.7±0.66 (mg/l), in 2013 and 6.00±0.31 (mg/l) to 11.20±1.35 (mg/l) in 2014. The BOD ranged from 2.40±0.24 (mg/l) to 7.00±1.52 (mg/l) in 2013; and from 3.28±0.41 (mg/l) to 5.60±1.02 (mg/l) in 2014. The DO values in the rainy season months were significantly different (p >0.05) from those of the dry season months. A total of ten (10) species of fishes belonging to seven families were identified namely, Clariidae (Clarias gariepinus), Claroteidae (Chrysicthys auratus), Bagridae (Auchenoglanis occidentalis), Characidae (Alestes dentex), Mormyridae (Mormyrus hasselquistii) and Cichlidae (Sarotherodon galiliaeus, Tilipia zillii and Tilapia aurea, Hemichromis fasciatus, and Clupeidae (Odaxothrissa mento). Correlation between fish species and physico-chemical parameters revealed strong correlation of Tilapia galileae and Mormyrus hasselquistii with phosphate. Hemichromis fasciatus correlated strongly with nitrate, BOD and DO. Auchenoglanis occidentalis and Clarias gariepinus weakly correlated with pH. This indicate the influence of physico-chemical parameter on the domestication and productivity of the lake