International Journal of Agricultural Management & Development (IJAMAD) Available online on: www.ijamad.com Assessment of Fish Biodiversity in Oni River, Ogun State, Nigeria Obe Bernardine Wuraola1 and Jenyo-Oni Adetola2 Received: 6 December 2010, or the purpose of sustainable exploitation of the fishery re- Revised: 3 February 2011, Fsources of Oni River, Ogun State, Nigeria, the fish Accepted: 4 February 2011. biodiversity assessment was carried out. This was conducted by enumerating and identifying fish species composition, meas- uring the fish length, fish weight, assessing the fish abundance and biomass, determining the length-weight relationships and the length-frequency of the fishes. Altogether, 592 fishes were sampled comprising twenty-eight (28) species belonging to sixteen (16) families. The families identified included: Cichlidae, Mormyridae, Clariidae, Channidae, Malapteruridae, Gymnar- chidae, Bagridae, Mochokidae, Polypteridae, Pantodontidae, Abstract Schilbeidae, Anabantidae, Osteoglossidae, Characidae, No- topteridae and Distichodontidae. The family Mormyridae was the most abundant with 163 members followed by Cichlidae with 161 members. The least represented family was Schilbeidae with only two (2) members. On the species level, Tilapia zillii had the greatest number of representation with seventy (70) Keywords: Fish biodiversity, Oni River, members, followed by Oreochromis niloticus with fifty-eight Sustainable exploitation. (58) members. 1Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Management, University of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti-State, Nigeria. International Journal of Agricultural Management & Development, 1(3): 107-113, September, 2011. September, Agricultural Management & Development, 1(3): 107-113, International Journal of 2Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Management, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. * Corresponding author’s email:
[email protected], Tel: +2348035746786. 107 Assessment of Fish Composition / Obe Bernardine Wuraola et al.