Fish Assemblage of Amadi Creek, Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria

The Amadi Creek, is a vital inland water body in Port-Harcourt, exploited for numerous reasons, including fishing. However, no information exists on the fin fish assemblage of the creek. This research is aimed at documenting the fish population of the Creek. A twelve week survey was conducted, and landed fish collected from fishers using indiscriminate fishing gears. The Fin fish Composition, Diversity and Abundance were ascertained using standard methods. A total 8,5552 fin fishes composed of 3 families, the Cichlid with two species (Sarotheredon melanotheron and Coptodon zilli), the Mugilidae and Clupeidae with one species each (Mugil cephalus and Sardinella maderensis, respectively) .The Sarotheredon melanotheron. Generally, diversity was low with only 4 species in the creek. Quantitatively, the family diversity of the Cichlids were high (50%), the Mugilidae and Clupeidae were low (25%) each. Species diversity revealed Sarotheredon melanotheron was higher (97.7%), Sardinella maderensis (1.1%), Mugil cephalus (0.8%), and Coptodon zilli lowest (0.5%) The diversity was significant (P<0.05) between the weeks. Species Abundance revealed that Sarotheredon melanotheron was dominant, Mugil cephalus and Sardinella maderensis few, and Coptodon zilli rare. It could be concluded that besides the Sarotheredon melanotheron the fishes were threatened. It is therefore recommended that prolonged research be carried out to establish the cause of the threat, status of the fin fishes and management strategies be developed to protect the fish species under threat