Dataset for the morphological and erythrocytes parameters of Clarias gariepinus, Pangasianodon hypophthalmus, and their reciprocal hybrid

Discrimination of different fishes can be done through different means which includes morphological appearance. When two fishes are successfully hybridized, they produce progenies that have shared morphology between their pure parent, hence, making morphometric characterization an important aspect of hybrid discrimination. However, erythrocyte characterization is also a simpler method for characterization. The dataset presented in this article represents the traditional morphological data, truss network data and erythrocyte data of pure and novel hybrids from reciprocal crosses of African catfish Clarias gariepinus and Asian catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus. Breeding of the broodstocks was done to produce pure and hybrid progenies which were maintained for a period of four to six months. Based on the cross combinations and morphotypes, traditional measurement of twenty-five morphological characters and five meristic counts were recorded. Thereafter pictures of the different fish groups were used to determine values of thirty-six distances between ten landmark points. The morphological abnormality of the hybrids at market size is also presented in this data article for the very first time. Blood was then collected from the caudal peduncle of ten fish per group and smeared on a slide for observation under a compound microscope (at 100 × magnification). Data gotten included erythrocytes parameters such as cell major axis, cell minor axis, nucleus major axis, nucleus minor axis cell area, nucleus area, cell volume, and nucleus volume. Data recording was through the Microsoft excel spreadsheet; which was also used to process the data to get the exclusive ranges of values for paired progenies. The data as presented is associated with the research article “Morphological characterization of the progenies of pure and reciprocal crosses of Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage, 1878) and Clarias gariepinus (Burchell,1822)” [1].The dataset presented in this article can be used for easy identification of the novel hybrid progenies of the African Catfish and Asian Catfis

Microbiota composition data for wild and captive bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus (Valenciennes, 1839

The Labroides dimidiatus is known as the “doctor fish” because of its role in removing parasites and infectious pathogens from the body of other fishes. This important role played both in wild and captive conditions could represent a novel form of parasitic transmission process mediated by the cleaning activity of the fish. Yet, there is a paucity of data on the microflora associated with this fish which is important for tracking disease infection and generally monitoring the health status of the fish. This article, therefore, represents the first dataset for the microbiota composition of wild and captive L. dimidiatus. Wild fish samples and carriage water were gotten in Terengganu Malaysia around the corals of the Karah Island. The captive sample, however, was obtained from well-known ornamental fish suppliers in Terengganu Malaysia. Thereafter, bacteria present on the skin, in the stomach and the aquarium water were enumerated using culture-independent approaches and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology. Data obtained from the three metagenomic libraries using NGS analysis gave 1,426,740 amplicon sequence reads which are composed of 508 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for wild samples and 3,238,564 valid reads and 828 OTUs for captive samples. All sequence reads were deposited in the GeneBank (Accession numbers SAMN14260247, SAMN14260248, SAMN14260249, SAMN14260250, SAMN14260251, and SAMN14260252). The dataset presented is associated with the research article “16S rDNA-Based Metagenomic Analysis of Microbial Communities Associated with Wild Labroides dimidiatus From Karah Island, Terengganu, Malaysia”. The microbiota data presented in this article can be used to monitor the health and wellbeing of the ornamental fish, especially under captivity, hence preventing possible cross-infectio

Performance Characteristics of Ankistrodesmus falcatus in Different Culture Media and Concentration

This study determined the effect of growth media and culture concentration on the growth, proximate, and microelement composition of Ankistrodesmus falcatus. The culture of A. falcatus was done using three media, namely Modified COMBO Medium (COMBO), Bold’s Basal Medium (BBM), and Bristol, at two concentrations (50% and 100%). The results obtained show that the cell density (>3.5 × 107 cells/mL), optical density (>0.24), and specific growth rate (>0.429%/day) were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) in BBM and COMBO than in Bristol (<3.1 × 107 cells/mL; <0.23; <0.416%/day, respectively) at both concentrations. However, biomass was higher in BBM (>2.20 g/L) than in COMBO (1.87–2.13 g/L), while Bristol had the lowest value observed (1.70–1.73 g/L). Biochemical and microelement composition showed variations between media and at the different concentrations, with higher values observed in BBM and COMBO. Based on the growth parameters and nutritional composition, it was concluded that BBM and COMBO were better media for the propagation of A. falcatus growth than Bristol. The study also demonstrated that the microalgae can be cultured using half of the media’s concentration to lower production costs

Aquaponics production of catfish and pumpkin: Comparison with conventional production systems

Aquaponics is known to be a smart way of producing fish and crops simultaneously; however, there is a paucity of information about the extents of this system's efficiency over other conventional methods of food production. Thus, this study was designed to evaluate the performance of a catfish–pumpkin aquaponics system in comparison with recirculatory and static aquaculture systems (for fish performance), as well as irrigated and nonirrigated systems (for pumpkin performance). Results obtained showed that the production of fish in the aquaponics system was 29% and 75% more efficient than recirculatory and static aquaculture systems, respectively. The survival of the fish was also significantly improved probably due to better water quality in the aquaponics system. With respect to pumpkin production, yield in the aquaponics system was about five times the performance in irrigated land and eleven times those in nonirrigated land. This study gives definitive evidence to support the efficiency of the aquaponics system over other conventional food production methods