Length-Weight Relationship And Condition Factor Of West African Fiddler Crab Uca Tangeri From Elechi Creek, Niger Delta, Nigeria

This study assessed the length-weight relationship and condition factor (K) of the fiddler crab Uca tangeri at the Elechi Creek in the upper Bonny Estuary of the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Crab samples were collected from 5 sampling stations were located on a littoral transect spanning approximately 4.56 km stretch from the exposed mudflats at low tide on a bi-monthly basis from January – December, 2023. The mean carapace width, carapace length and weight of the crab ranged from 3.25 – 3.70 cm, 2.70 – 3.05 cm and 18.85 – 25.70 g respectively. The slope weight for the regression equation indicated that longer carapace length predicted larger weight of U. tangeri. The 95% confidence interval for the slope (0.594 - 0.781) was positive throughout the range of the interval. Based on the magnitude of the correlation coefficient (r = 0.767), the study showed that carapace length is moderately related to weight of U. tangeri at the Elechi creek, with 59% (r 2 = 0.588) of the variance of crab body weight accounted for by carapace length. The calculated b value for U. tangeri was < 3 and showed negative allometric growth in crabs, t(147) = 14.476, p < 0.05. The condition factor (Kn) value of 1.0031 was > 1 and indicated that crab in the study area had good level of feeding and proper environmental condition