Lemma Abera, Abebe Getahun and Brook Lemma
Studies were made on the breeding season, maturation and fecundity of the Common carp, Cyprinus carpio (L., 1758) in Lake Ziway from January 2003 to December 2014. C. carpio has an extended breeding period but intensive breeding takes place between February and May on the nursery grounds around the shore of the lake. On the other hand, most of the fishing gears employed operated from the shore area where mostly very small and spawning fish are found. The sizes at first maturity (L50) of males were 27cm FL (fork length) while for females it was 28.7 cm FL. The total number of eggs in the ovaries ranged from 75,645 and 356,743 with a mean of 210,538 and C. carpio in Lake Ziway conforms to the general patterns of the relationship between fecundity and length and weight of many tropical fish species. Based on these and related data it is suggested that fishing gears be regulated to safeguard C.carpio stocks for sustainable exploitation
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