Meristic and Morphometric of Sarotherodon galilaeus from the Nile and its Tributaries, Sudan
Clear overlap between Sarotherodon galilaeus samples from Kosti and Sinnar and distinct separation of Al Sabaloga samples in meristic counts was detected by Discriminant analysis. This reflected impact of habitats on growth which is typical riverine in Kosti and Sinnar and a cataract in Al Sabaloga. The mode of dorsal fin spines, anal fin rays and pectoral fin rays was similar in the three sites. Slight variability in the mean of other traits was related to variation in the counts between locations. The total length (TL) of S. galilaeus ranged from 16.50 to 19.50cm; 12.8 to 20.0cm and 14-16.5cm in Kosti, Sinnar and Al Sabaloga, respectively. While the body weight (BW)varied between 110 and 142g; 51 and140g and 40-51g; in Kosti, Sinnar and Al Sabaloga, respectively. Comparison between the mean value of 21 traits showed that in Kosti samples the means of BW, body depth (BD), TL, standard length (SL), pre-anal distance, dorsal fin base and pre-dorsal distance were significantly (p<0.05) than the corresponding readings from Sinnar samples. The rest of the traits showed no significant differences between the two locations. From Kosti and Sinnar S. galilaeus showed significant correlation (p<0.05) between BW: TL; SL: TL and BD. The correlation matrices of S. galilaeus from Kosti showed a very high correlation between TL and SL (r-0.960) and a very weak correlation between PRF and IOW (r = -1.4E-16). Sinnar samples showed a very high correlation between BW: TL and BW: SL (r - 0.840) and a very weak correlation between pre-pelvic distance and inter orbital width (r = 9.18E-05). The TL vs BW regression showed a positive allometric growth as b>3.0 in Kosti as well as in Sinnar.