Study of Length-weight relationship and the condition factors of Lepidocephalichthys guntea (Hamilton, 1822) from Kangsabati river of district West Midnapore, West Bengal, India.

The Peppered loach, Lepidocephalichthys guntea is the least concerned freshwater species, commonly found in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In West Bengal, it is popularly known as “Guntey” & it has commercial and food value. The current study aimed to the estimation of the length-weight relationship, condition, and relative condition factor (Kn) of the fish species Lepidocephalichthys guntea, habitats of Kangsabati river in the District West Midnapore, West Bengal, India. Total 161 numbers of species were collected between August 2019 to July 2020 and considered for examination. The fishes ranged from 5.4 to 10.7 cm in total length & 0.72 to 9.73 g in weight. The scatter diagram exhibits a linear relationship between the log length & log weight. The female species has a higher “b” value (b=3.452, P<0.05), which is greater than 3 which justifying a positive allometric growth. The parabolic equation among total length and weight of L. guntea is labeled as W= 0.008744991 L 2.7496 for males, W= 0.002153098 L 3.452 for females & W= 0.007575793 L 2.8155 for the combination of male and female species. Higher r2 (0.859, P<0.05) value in combined of male & female justifying a strong relationship between length and weight. The mean condition(K) & relative condition factor (Kn) values were found to be the height in the male category with "K" value 0.654 & "Kn” value1.174 respectively indicating the well-being of the species. Although, this species does not sternly follow the cube law & shows a well status of health condition in their natural habitat.