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Environment & Ecology 31 (3) : 12551259, JulySeptember 2013

Website: environmentandecology.com
ISSN 0970-0420

Length-Weight Relationship and Condition Factor of

Puntius sophore (Hamilton, 1822) Collected from
Kolkata and Sub Urban Fish Markets
Monalisa Pal, B. K. Mahapatra,
Basudev Mondal

Received 1 April 2013;

Accepted 16 May 2013;

Published online 15 July 2013

Abstract Puntius sophore is an important species

due to its high nutritive status, delicacy and market
demand both in fresh and dried conditions. Lengthweight relationships are important in fisheries science,
notably to raise length-frequency samples to total
catch, or to estimate biomass from underwater length
observations. It is reported that P. sophore is declining rapidly due to heavy fishing pressure from the
Indian waters, it is categorized as lower risk near threatened. In the present study length-weight relationship
and condition factor of P. sophore (Hamilton) were
estimated from 483 individuals collected from Kolkata
and sub-urban fish markets during February 2012 to
February 2013 to assess the two most biological parameters of the species. The total length ranged from
4.90 to 11.10 cm and the total body weight ranged
from 1.37 to 21.11 g. The scatter diagram showed the
linear relationship in between the log length and log
weight of the fish. The relationship of logarithm values of length and weight was found positive and

M. Pal*, B. K. Mahapatra
Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Sector-V, Salt Lake
City, Kolkata 700091, India
B. Mondal
Aquaculture Management and Technology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, India
e-mail: monalisapal08@gmail.com
*Correspondence

highly significant justifying a strong relationship between L-W of P. sophore (r=0.934). The functional
form of relationship between L-W of the species is
established as Log W= 2.130 + 3.242 Log L. The
fitted equation is a good fit as can seen from the coefficient of determination value (R2 = 0.871). The mean
condition factor of the fish was found to 1.10 indicating good condition of the fish.
Keywords Sophore barb, Length-weight relationship, Puntius, Correlation, Condition factor.

Introduction
Length weight relationship as well as the condition
factors is useful parameters for assessing the wellbeing of the individuals and for determining possible
differences among different stocks of the same species (1). It helps for estimating the weight from the
known length and vice-versa, duration of gonadal
maturation, increase or decrease in feeding activity,
possibly due to modifications in food resources (2).
In fisheries science, the condition factor is used to
compare the condition, fatness or well being of
fish. It is based on the hypothesis that heavier fish of
a particular length are in a better physiological condition. Condition factor is also a useful index for monitoring of feeding intensity, age, and growth rates in
fish. It is strongly influenced by both biotic and abiotic environmental conditions and can be used as an
index to assess the status of the aquatic ecosystem

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in which fish live. The pool barb, Puntius sophore (3)

belongs to the family Cyprinidae, locally called jatpunti
is widely distributed in freshwaters of India,
Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan the waters of
South Asia tropical climate ranging 390 N-880 N (4).
This shoaling fish is an important species due to its
high nutritive status, delicacy and market demand
both in fresh and dried conditions (4,5). As P. sophore
inhabits rivers, streams, ponds, beels, floodplains,
baors, haors in plains and sub-montane regions dominantly (5, 6) it is an important target species for small
scale fishers (7). This commercially important small
indigenous fish species (SIS) has both ornamental
(8) and food value (7). However, P. sophore is declining rapidly due to heavy fishing pressure, and in
recent studies from the Indian waters, it is categorized as lower risk near threatened (911). Proper
management of the species can play vital role in the
national economy of the country. In view of the importance of length-weight relationship, condition factor and other biological factor of this fish species,
considerable attention has been paid by many workers (4, 1217) to this aspect of fishery biology. Therefore, keeping in view of the importance of this species, in the present study the length weight relationship and condition factor of Puntius sophore was
studied to assess the biology of the species.

est centimeter from the tip of the snout to the tip of

the caudal fin. The weights were taken to one tenth of
a gram. The length-weight data were analyzed according to the method given by Le Cren (18). In the present
study, the equation of the parabolic relationship of
the form W=aLb was used where W represents weight
of the fish in gram. L being the total length in centimeter and a the constant and b an exponent to which
L can be raised. The equation expressed in logarithmic form becomes: Log W = Log a + b Log L. The
equation was calculated for combined sample and a
linear relationship between the logarithm length and
logarithm weight was found from the examination of
scatter diagram. The coefficient of correlation was
calculated from the formula given by (19). The regression line was calculated and drawn from the following equation (19). The calculations were based on log
values length and weight of the fish species. To test
the regression coefficient, t test was done according to the method given by (20). All calculations are
done using SPSS and MS Excel.
Condition index
The following formula was used to express the condition factor: K=W/Lb. Where W denotes the observed weight; L = total length and b = regression
coefficient.

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion
Collection of the sample
Length-weight relationship
A total number of 483 specimens belonging to all
available size classes and both male and female were
taken into account to study of length-weight relationship. They were collected at random mostly
from Kolkata and sub-urban fish market (Behala,
Garia, Shaorafully fish market) during February-2012
to February-2013. All samples were frozen until processing.

In the present study the length weight data were anaTable 1. Descriptive statistics of P. sophore (combined group)
length-weight characteristics.

Computational formula for lengthweight relationship

The fishes were cleaned, blotted and air dried. The
measurements for length and weight were taken using an accurate scale and an electrical balance respectively. The total length was recorded to the near-

Sta
tistic

Std.
error

Std.
deviation
Statistic

483 4.90 11.10

6.7706

0.03958

0.86981

483 1.37 21.11

3.9275

0.08873

1.95009

MiniN
mum
Sta- Statis- tistic
tic
Length
(cm)
Weight
(g)

Maximum
Statistic

Mean

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Table 2. Model summary, a. Predictors : (Constant), C

Logl.

Model

R
square

Adjusted
R
square

0.934 a

0.871

0.871

Std.
error
of the
estimate
0.06684

lyzed on the combined group of P. sophore fish

collected throughout the year.
Descriptive statistics
The descriptive statistics of combined group of length
weight data is presented in Table 1. It appeared that
the length of the combined groups of P. sophore
fishes ranges from the 4.90 to 11.10 cm and weight
ranges from 1.37 to 21.11 g. The observed mean length
+ standard errors is (6.7706 cm 0.03958) and the
mean weight is observed (3.93 g 08873) respectively.
Further in case of length, the standard deviation is
0.86981 and in case of weight, the standard deviation
is 1.95009. The present study recorded the maximum
size of the P. sophore was 11.1 cm TL, which was
lower than the maximum record value of 18.00 cm TL
in India (8). The maximum TL for P. sophore were recorded by various workers such as 9.02 cm (17), 10.20
cm (12), 9.9 cm (13), and 12.4 cm (7). However, habitat
wise it varied such as TL max 6 cm at Ruili, Yunnan
(China), 6.3 cm at Tamilnadu (India) and 13 cm at the
Krishna river (India) (21). In the present study the
female was found significantly larger than male P.
sophore fish which supports the observation of (13).
In addition, the maximum weight of P. sophore observed in this study was 21.11 g which was lower
Table 3. ANOVAb. a. Predictors: (Constant), C LogL, b.
Dependent Variable: C LogW.
Sum
of
Mo- squdel
ares
1

Regression
Residual
Total

df

Mean
square

14.567

2.149
16.717

481 0.004
482

Fig. 1. Length-weight relationship of P. sophore (logarithmic scale).

than the maximum recorded value of 70.0 g in

Maharastra, India (22). The maximum weight of the P.
sophore fish were recorded by various workers were
13.20 g (17), 17 g (23) and 14.25 g (13).
Scatter diagram
The length weight data of Puntius sophore was
collected and converted into logarithm form to estimate the length weight relationship and make it linear
form for estimation of regression parameters. The
length weight data was presented in the form of scatter diagram. From the scatter diagram we see that the
relationship is linear (Fig. 1).
Calculation of correlation
coefficient (r)
Calculation of coefficient of correlation along with R
square, adjusted R square and standard error of the
estimate are presented in Table 2. From Table 2 it
appears that the values of coefficient of correlation
r is 0.934 and test shows a highly significant value.
This justifies the fact that there is a strong significant
Table 4. Testing of constant and regression coefficienta. a.
Dependent Variable: CLogW.

Sig.
Model

14.567 3.260E3

Unstandardized
coefficients
Std.
B
error

Standardized
coefficients
Beta

Sig

0.000 a
(Constant)
Log L.

- 2.130
3.242

0.047
0.057

0.934

- 45.259
57.099

0.000
0.000

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relationship between length and weight.

and market arrival. The result of the study will be

useful for future researchers and policy planners.

Calculation of regression coefficient

(b) and testing for significance
References

SPSS output for estimation and testing the significance of regression (ANOVA) is presented in Table 3.
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4, we found that this regression co-efficient (b) was
highly significant. The functional form of relationship between length and weight was calculated based
on formula W = aLb (log W = log a + b logL). In this
case a was found to be 2.130 and b was 3.242 (Table
4). Further b was found to be highly significant as
evidenced from t test presented in that table no-4.
Here the calculated value of t is found to be 57.099
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1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

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8.
Log W = 2.130 + 3.242 Log L

The coefficient of determination R2 is 0.871 that indicates a very good fit of model.

9.

10.

The correlation coefficient was found to be 0.934a

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