Afr J Ecol. 2022;00:1–6. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/aje | 1 © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Received: 4 August 2020 | Revised: 1 June 2022 | Accepted: 22 June 2022 DOI: 10.1111/aje.13055 RESEARCH NOTE Morphometric and genetic diversity of an African catfish ( Clarias gariepinus ) population from Southeast Algeria Ibrahim Elkhalil Behmene 1,2 | Benabdallah Bachir Bouiadjra 1,2 | Abdelkader Homrani 1 | Mohamed Daoudi 1,2 | Francisco Javier Sánchez-Vázquez 3 | Alejandro López-Lopez 4,5 | Ana Isabel Asensio-Pérez 4 | José Galián 4 1 Laboratory of Sciences and Technics of Animal Production (LSTAP), Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University, Mostaganem, Algeria 2 Department of Marine Science and Aquaculture, Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University, Mostaganem, Algeria 3 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Campus Mare Nostrum, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain 4 Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology, Faculty of Veterinary, Campus Mare Nostrum, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain 5 Department of Invertebrate Evolution, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland Correspondence Ibrahim Elkhalil Behmene, Laboratory of Sciences and Technics of Animal Production (LSTAP), Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University, Mostaganem, Algeria. Email: ibrahim.behmene@univ-mosta.dz Funding information "Fundación Séneca" of the Regional Government of Murcia, Spain, Grant/Award Number: project 19908-GERM-15; Directorate General for Scientific Research and Technological Development of Algeria, Grant/Award Number: PRFU/D00L03UN270120180001 Keywords: DNA barcoding, genetic barriers, haplotype, phylogeography 1 | INTRODUCTION Fishes in the family Clariidae are key members of freshwater ecosys- tems in the Paleotropical Region. The greatest diversity of this family is found in Africa, with 14 genera and 92 species (Teugels, 1986). The African catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822), commonly known in Algeria as ‘asataf’ (Behmene et al., 2020), is widely dis- tributed in freshwater ecosystems across the African continent (Van Steenberge et al., 2020) and in the Middle East, but it has been introduced all over the world since the 1980s. In its natural habi- tat, this species is qualified as a taxon of minor concern according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It is an im- portant source of animal protein for rural populations in Southern Algeria, and it has been recognised as one of the most promising fish species for developing an aquaculture industry in Africa (Ali & Jauncey, 2005). In the taxonomic review of the species of the subgenus defined by Teugels (1982a, 1982b), C. anguillaris is reported to have 14–40 gill rakers, whereas C. gariepinus has 20–100 gill rakers. Compaoré et al. (2015) later reported that the maximum number of gill rakers in C. gariepinus was 120. The main objectives of this study are to analyse samples of Clarias gariepinus coming from Oued Thakalmate Illizi—Algeria to: (a) document for the first time the natural presence of the species in Southern Algeria, (b) establish the morphometry as a method for characterisation of populations and (c) generate genetic data of these populations to compare with gene databases in order to infer their origin. 2 | MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1 | Material Eighty-four samples of C. gariepinus were caught in October 2019 at the Oued Takhamalte of the Saharan rural area (N26°54′40.2″ and E008°42′49.0″), which is located 60km from the capital of the wil- laya of Illizi in Southeast Algeria (Figure 1). Fish were collected using an artisanal method practised by the inhabitants of the region. 2.2 | Sample preparation The fishes (84) were kept in plastic tanks, immersed in water, transported to the Laboratory of Sciences and Technics of Animal Production (LSTAP), Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University, Mostaganem, Algeria. The fishes were exposed to eugenol at concentration of 125 μg/ml and then preserved in 10% formalin. Fins from five Clarias