All rights reserved This work by Wilolud Journals is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License 1 Continental J. Biological Sciences 8 (1): 1 - 7, 2015 ISSN: 2141 - 4122 © Wilolud Journals, 2015 http://www.wiloludjournal.com Printed in Nigeria doi:10.5707/cjbiolsci.2015.8.1.1.7 Research Paper MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS AND MERISTIC TRAITS OF Tilapia zillii FROM THREE MAJOR DAMS OF A SOUTHWESTERN STATE, NIGERIA Fagbuaro Omotayo Ekiti State University, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, PMB 5363, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria ABSTRACT Tilapia zillii was examined in three major dams in Ekiti State, Nigeria (Ureje dam, Ado, Egbe dam and Ero dam) for their morphometric characteristics and meristic traits. The results showed that the average body weight of the fish sampled were 145.86±50.06g in Ado, 30.19±9.35g in Egbe and 40.58±52.30g in Ero dam. Average total lengths were 21.29±3.20cm, 12.32±1.74cm and 11.24±1.56cm for Ado, Egbe and Ero dam respectively. The relationship between average weight and length of T. zillii showed that Y=15.202X-179.33 (R 2 =0.7181), Y=4.40049±-24.075 (R 2 =0.6708) and Y=2.6676X10.596 (R 2 =0.0063) for Ado, Egbe and Ero dam respectively. The results on headlength, total length, body weight and standard length and pre-pelvic distance are significantly different at 95% among the T.zillii of the three dams. There was no significant difference in the meristic traits of the T. zillii of the three dams. The population size of T.zillii in the three dams was just too small compared to other species of fish hence the need to assess the stock of fish in these dams critically for the encouragement of proper fishing activities in these dams KEYWORDS: Tilapia zillii, Morphometric Characteristics, Meristic traits, Dam, Nigeria Received for Publication: 12/01/15 Accepted for Publication: 16/03/15 Corresponding Author: omofagbuaro@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION Tilapia of the family Cichlidae, is an African freshwater fish with over 100 species. Culturing of tilapia boosts the source of fish protein in many countries of the world and the consumption of tilapia in both the developing and industrialized countries has increased tremendously. There has been an increasing interest in tilapia culture and it has been transplanted and stocked into waters of most countries of the World (Balarin and Hatton, 1979, Eknath et.al., 1993). T. zillii was among the species of Cichliidae caught in the three water reservoirs in Ekiti State, Nigeria, T. zillii has many attributes that make it suitable for culture. Among these are its general hardiness, high tolerance to adverse environmental conditions and overcrowding, its ability to withstand low oxygen and a wide range of salinity concentrations and resistance to diseases. Tilapia is able to survive and grow on a wide range of natural and artificial feeds, converts food efficiently, grows relatively fast, has a high yield potential and is accepted by a wide range of consumers. Furthermore, tilapia can be grown in a variety of culture systems ranging from simple systems with little infrastructure to more intensive and complex systems (Ridha, 2006). Based on the attributes mentioned above, there is need to assess their population among the fish diversity of these dams for proper monitoring and of the growth and development. This can be done through morphometric characteristics of the fish.