External morphometric study of hatchery reared mahseer (<i>Tor putitora</i>) in relation to body size and condition factor

Abstract

Different samples of Mahseer (Tor putitora) were examined for the study of external morphometric characters of the fish. Slopes of log transformed data were used for comparison with an isometric slopes (b=1, b= 0.33 or b= 3). Relationships between wet body weight and external body parts lengths showed that increasing trend was found in all the parameters with the increase in wet body weight. Length of all the external body parts was also found to be increase with the increase in total length of the fish. Highly significant correlation (r = 0.9436) was found with negative allometric growth in the length-weight relationship. Wet body weight showed positive correlation with external body parts length and their weights. The relationship between wet body weight and the condition factor was found linear with no significant correlation, but with total length, it showed inverse relationship with highly significant correlation. This study will help to recognize the morphometric of different variants and to improve body weight for fish breeding and commercial growth.

Key words: External morphometery, body size, condition factor, Tor putitora