Applied Tropical Agriculture

The diversity, distribution and abundance of fish species in Ovia River, Edo state Nigeria was studied for 24 months using various fishing gears. The river was divided into three sampling stations. A total of 5,386 specimens were sampled made up of 81 fish species, 42 genera and 27 families. Mormyridae, Mochokidae and Cichlidae families were the most abundant, while the most abundant in terms of number of specimen in total catch were Mochokidae and Clariidae. Fish abundance showed higher catches during the wet season (>60%). The different stations showed marked ichthyofauna similarity but nearby stations had higher indices of similarity