Investigating the relationships between some physico-chemical parameters and growth patterns of two marine fish species from Ibeshe and Okunraye aquatic stations in Lagos, Nigeria

Ensuring the sustainability of fishing and conserving fish diversity in the aquatic environments cannot be undermined. Hence, this study aimed to analyse some water parameters (Water temperature, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, total dissolved solids, turbidity, salinity, phosphate, sulfate, nitrite, and nitrate) of Ibeshe and Okunraye aquatic stations and investigate if there exists any correlation between the physico-chemical parameters and growth patterns of Chloroscombrus chrysurus and Pseudotolithus typus from these aquatic stations. Water and fish samples were collected for three months (September to November 2022) while the physico-chemical parameters of water were determined using APHA standard procedures. The inter-relationship between water and morphometric parameters of the fish were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. All the mean values of physico-chemical parameters were within the standard permissible range. P. typus in Okunraye had a positive allometric growth (b=3.35) while P. typus (b=2.63) in Ibeshe and C. chrysurus at both Okunraye and Ibeshe had negative allometric growth patterns. The condition factor ‘K’ for P. typus in both stations was greater than one while K for C. chrysurus was greater than one in Okunraye (1.03) but less than one in Ibeshe (0.78). This indicates that the two fish samples (except C. chrysurus in Ibeshe) are in good condition. However, Pearson’s correlation coefficient between morphometric characters of the fish and the water quality parameters showed no significant (p>0.05 and p> 0.01) correlation in most of the values signifying that the physico-chemical parameter of the habitat at present poses no major hindrance to the maximum growth of the examined fish species. However, some other factors such as the availability of food and rate of exploitation might be responsible for the slight disparity in body weight, total length and pectoral fins.