Body composition of freshwater Wallago attu in relation to body size, condition factor and sex from southern Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Wallago attu is one of the large freshwater catfish found in Pakistan. The rapid growth and high nutritional quality encouraged investigation into the aquaculture potential of this excellent food fish. It was observed that body size had a positive influence on percent ash, percent fat and percent protein contents (wet weight) but there was no significant effect on percent water content. The condition factor had a positive correlation with fat, ash and protein contents (%wet weight) but no influence on percent water content. There was no significant influence of sex on body composition of W. attu. If it is impossible to find out the water content, then the body constituents can be estimated from the wet body weight, total length and condition factor of this species. As the variations in body composition are related to these variables, so the equations of each constituent were estimated. The predictive equations can be used to estimate the body composition with a fair level of accuracy.

Key words: Wallago attu, body size, condition factor, body composition, sex.