Electrophoretic Variation in Haemoglobins of some Freshwater and Estuarine Fishes of Ghana

Abstract

Electrophoresis has been performed on the haemolysates of some freshwater and estuarine fishes in and around Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana. The electrophoresis was performed on the haemolysates of Sarotherodon melamotheron (Ruppel) Tilapia zilli (Gevais), Heterobranchus isopterus (Burchell), Clarias gariepimus (Valenciennes), Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Valenciennes), Channa obscura (Walbaum) and Carassius auratus L.

All the fishes studied had multiple haemoglobins. Nine haemoglobins bands were found in T.zilli and s. melamotheron. Four bands each were observed in Carassius auratus whilst Channa obscura and Chrystichys nigrodigitus were characterized by four and three bands respectively. The multiple haemoglobins show striking similarities among released species but also display considerable differences among the difference taxonomic families.