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Length-weight relationships of 37 freshwater fish species from the Lefini river,middle Congo River basin (Republic of the Congo) |
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| Authors: | Armel Ibala Zamba Emmanuel Vreven Victor Mamonekene Tobias Musschoot Honnest Freedom Poaty Ngot Jos Snoeks |
| Affiliation: | 1. Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et de Foresterie, Université Marien Ngouabi, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo;2. Ichthyology, Vertebrates Section, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium;3. Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et de Foresterie, Université Marien Ngouabi, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo Institut National de Recherche en Sciences Exactes et Naturelles, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo;4. Ichthyology, Vertebrates Section, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium;5. Institut National de Recherche en Sciences Exactes et Naturelles, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo |
| Abstract: | The present study reports on length-weight relationships (LWRs) for 37 of the most abundant fish species in the Lefini River basin, one of the largest right bank tributaries of the Congo River in the Republic of the Congo. The study area comprised 12 stations along 103 km of the river. Each station was sampled during March 2007 to August 2008 following standardized methods utilizing five monofilament gill nets of 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30 mm mesh size. Sample size, lengths, weights, LWRs, 95% confidence intervals of a and b, coefficient of correlation r2 and growth type are provided for each species. Values of allometric coefficient b of the LWRs (W = aSLb) ranged from 2.556 for Synodontis nigriventris to 3.363 for Brycinus poptae. These results represent the first study of length-weight relationships for fish species in a large affluent of the Congo basin as a whole. |
| Keywords: | fish lefini river length-weight relationship middle Congo |