Fish communities of Tagwai dam, Niger state, Nigeria.

Abstract

This study on fish species, generic and family diversity and abundance of Tagwai Dam was carried out for 12 months. Five landing sites were located close to the dam and were all sampled to determine the fish species in the dam. Data was collected from the fresh landing sites from artisanal fishermen bi- weekly. Twelve (12) species belonging to nine (9) genera and six (6) families were indentified. Two (2) families had the highest species diversity having four species each. They include Bagridae [Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus, Chrysichthys furcatus Auchonogtanis, biscitutus, Auchnoglanis occidentalis], Cichlidae  (Hemichromis fusciatus, Tilapia galilea,Ttilapia zilli, Tilapia galilea, Tilapia mariae}. The total count of fish sample during the study period was 326673. Cynothrissa mento had highest population of 247477 while Auchinoglanis occidentalis had the lowest population of 125. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the family and species of Bagridae and Cichlidae and also between the families and species of Characidae, Cypirinidae, and Clariidae but the family Clupeidae was significantly (p<0.05) different from the rest families. The species Auchanoglanis biscitutus only occurred twice during the three month of sampling making it the least species available.

Key words: Fish, communities, Tagwai, Dam