Studies on Length-weight relationship of two Cichlid fish species, Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters, 1852) and Etroplus suratensis (Bloch, 1790) from the downstream region of Meenachil River, Kerala, India.

Abstract

The length–weight relationships (LWRs) of two cichlid fish species, Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters, 1852) and Etroplus suratensis (Bloch, 1790) were studied from the downstream region of Meenachil river, Kerala, India. A total of 346 specimens were sampled bi-monthly during a period of February 2021 to February 2022 using gill nets with various mesh sizes (3.5 cm–9 cm) and cast nets with a 1.5 cm mesh size. The intercept value (a) for Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters, 1852) and Etroplus suratensis (Bloch, 1790) was found to be 0.0735 and 0.0405 respectively. The growth exponent (b) indicated a negative allometric growth pattern (b < 3.0) for Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters, 1852) and Etroplus suratensis (Bloch, 1790) with values of 2.41 and 2.83 respectively. This work serves as the first reference on the length-weight relationship of Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters, 1852) and Etroplus suratensis (Bloch, 1790) from the Meenachil river.