Study of some biological parameters of Cyprinus carpio from Foum El-khanga Dam, Souk-Ahras, Algeria

Abstract

Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus, 1758) is a wide-world freshwater fish, and is among the top important aquaculture species of the world. Since there are no available data on the growth pattern of this species in Foum El-Khanga Dam Souk-Ahras, Algeria, this study was carried out to determine the condition factor, length-weight relationship, age and growth. A total of 347 specimens of C. carpio were collected from Foum El-Khanga Dam (Souk-Ahras, Algeria) by monthly sampling from March 2015 to February 2016. Significant differences were noticed between the mean length of females (33.44±0.38) and males (30.88±0.31). The age of the examined fishes ranged from 2- to 7-year-old, meanwhile the dominant age group was 3-year-old. The size frequency distributions and the growth parameters were analyzed according to ELEFAN method, using FISAT II software. The Von Bertalanffy growth parameters were found as asymptotic length, L∞ = 58.28 cm, asymptotic weight, W∞ = 2019.76 g, growth coefficient, K = 0.30 year-1, to = -0.47 year for both combined sexes, asymptotic length, L∞ = 48.83 cm, asymptotic weight, W∞ = 1148.56 g, growth coefficient, K = 0.49 year-1, to = -0.29 year for males, and asymptotic length, L∞ = 58.28 cm, asymptotic weight, W∞ = 2049.84 g, growth coefficient, K = 0.41 year-1, to = -0.34 year for females. Also, the results indicated that L∞ and W∞ values of females were higher than those of males. The growth performance index was estimated as Φ́́́́ = 3.008 for combined sexes, Φ́́́́ = 3.068 for males, and Φ́́́́ = 3.144 for females. The condition factor indicates good conditions of the C. carpio fish. Moreover, the length-weight relationship was estimated as W = 0.0181 × Lt2.859 (the coefficient of determination, R2 = 0.963) for both sexes. Statistical analyses showed that the b coefficient is significantly lower than 3 (negative allometry) for separated and combined sexes (t-test, p < 0.05), as well as the relationship between the length and the weight exhibited a high correlation.