Study on Morphological Variation in Iran Grass Carp Stocks

Two stocks of grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella Val were collected from North, Mazandran and South, Khuzestan to compare some morphometric and meristic characters. The Khuzestan stocks were significantly greater in body length, intestine length and number of vertebrae than the Mazandran stocks (p<0.05). The body width, depth of Mazandran were higher but gill raker lower than another stock. The Mazandran stock has a smaller head and snout. The Khuzestan grass carp showed low coefficients of variation in almost all morphometric and meristic characters, suggesting homogeneous properties of these stocks while higher variation in Mazandran grass carp stock. It is suggested that the Mazandran and Khuzestan are well established as a strain, but have a common ancestor.