Food and Feeding Habits, Growth Pattern and Fecundity of Callinectes amnicola in Lagos Lagoon

Abstract

Crabs belong to the phylum Arthropoda together with other successful animals having exoskeletons. They are crustacean with broad, compact body and abdomen which is greatly reduced and tucked away underneath the cephalothoraxes. About 50 specimens, used for this study, were bought from Makoko market on June, 2011. They were caught by artisanal fishermen from Nigerian coastal waters. These specimens were examined for their growth pattern, food and feeding habit and reproductive biology of the shelf fish. The carapace length of the specimen ranged from 4.5 to 7.0. The correlation coefficient was 0.61 which showed a strong correlation between the standard length and weight. Out of the fifty shellfish specimens 24% has empty stomach. The condition factor ranged from 3.1 to 6.5 for the combined sexes. The result from chi-square test showed that the number of female was significantly more (p>0.05) than the number of males.