Morphometric analysis of three species gourami group (Osphronemidae) from Aceh waters, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract The objective of the present study was to analyze the morphometric character of the three species within Gourami group, namely Trichopsis vittata, Trichopodus pectoralis and Trichopodus trichopterus. The T. vittata samples were collected from Aceh Tamiang District, the T. pectoralis were collected from Aceh Besar District, and the T. trichopterus were collected from Aceh Jaya District, Indonesia. A total 150 individual of fish samples (50 individual of every species) were measured for traditional morphometric characters. The results of univariate (ANOVA) analysis showed that all morphometric characters measured in three fish species were significantly different (P <0.05). Multivariate (Discriminant function analysis, DFA) analysis showed that T. pectoralis and T. trichopterus have more similar morphological characteristics, whereas T. vittata was discriminated distinctly. These results confirm that the level of relationship between T. trichopterus and T. pectoralis is closer than T. vittata.