Controlled Breeding of Asian Catfish Clarias batrachus using Pituitary Gland Extracts and Ovaprim at different Temperatures, Latency Periods and their Early Development

Abstract

Present study was conducted on induced breeding of commercially important Clarias batrachus due to the non-availability of its quality seeds from the natural resources for environmental degradation, shrinkage of natural breeding ground and illegal killing of juveniles and brood fishes. The aim of the study was to achieve success in fertilization and hatching using various doses of different inducing agents at different temperatures and latency periods followed by stripping method. In this study the developmental stages of fish (fertilized egg to 45 th day old fish) were characterized chronologically. A trial was also made to optimize the survival rate of young developing fish upto 45 th day by manipulating their feeding schedule and environmental conditions. The breeding experiments were done with pituitary gland extracts (40 and 120 mg/kg. body weight for female and 25 and 50 mg/kg. body weight for male) and Ovaprim (0.8 and 2.0 ml/kg body weight for female and 0.4 and 1.0 ml/kg body weight for male) at 26º, 28º and 30ºC. The highest rates of fertilization (80%) and hatching (71%) of eggs were recorded in Clarias batrachus injected with carp pituitary gland extracts @ 50 mg/kg body weight of male and 120 mg/kg body weight of female at 28ºC with a latency period of 15 hours. The fertilization and hatching rates were 77% and 65% respectively at 28°C at the higher doses of Ovaprim. The highest survival rate (82.5%) of developing fish was achieved supplying zooplankton as live feed upto 12 th day followed by alternate supply of zooplankton, boiled egg with vitamin C and chopped tubifex from 13 th to 45 th day of rearing in indoor polyvinyl chloride tray with minimum fluctuation in temperature and dissolved oxygen.

EMBRYONIC AND LARVAL DEVELOPMENT OF A RED STRAIN OF THE EGYPTIAN AFRICAN CATFISH (Clarias gariepinus Burchell, 1822)

“…In Brazil, the hatching occurred after approximately 30 hours of incubation at water temperature of 25°C (Kipper et al, 2013). Those differences were influenced by the water temperature, the higher the water temperature, the earlier the hatching taken place, as reported by Hogendoorn & Vismans (1980), Kamler et al (1994), Haylor & Mollah (1995) and Oyelese (2006), and as reported by Legendre & Teugels (1991) in H. longifilis and Dhara & Saha (2013) for C. batrachus.…”

“…Larvae of H. longifilis attained the morphology resembled the adults within 17 days at water temperature of 28°C-30.5°C (Legendre & Teugels, 1991). Larvae of C. batrachus in Bangladesh were reported to attain the adult characters within 18 days of rearing at 27°C-28°C of water temperature (Hossain et al, 2006), while in India were attained within 20 days at water temperature of 26°C-28°C (Dhara & Saha, 2013).…”

Length–weight relationship and growth performance of different life stages of hatchery‐produced magur,Clarias magur(Hamilton, 1822)

“…The magur hatchlings size was 0.4-0.5 cm length and 0.002-0.003 g weight (Sahoo et al, 2016). The newly hatched C. batrachus had 0.41 cm in length and 0.003 g in weight which produced through pituitary and synthetic hormonal (ovaprim) injection (Dhara & Saha, 2013), but another study reported that it has length of 0.52 cm and weight of 0.0023 g (Sahoo et al, 2004). Another catfish of the same genus, African catfish, C. gariepinus, hatchling has similar body length (0.4 cm) and weight (0.0015 g) (Delince, Campbell, Janssen, & Kutty, ), but the yellowtail catfish, Pangasius pangasius, hatchlings had lower length (0.3-0.45 cm) and weight (0.0008-0.0011 g) (Ferosekhan, Sahoo, Giri, Saha, & Paramanik, 2015).…”

“…The growth of the fish is always influenced by the various factors such as temperature, photoperiod (Bobe, 2015;Deacon & Hecht, 1996), stocking density (Sahoo et al, 2004), diet composition (Berntsson, Jonsson, Wängberg, & Carlsson, 1997). The 13 dph magur larvae attained body size of 1.94 cm length and 0.058 g weight at 1,000 nos./m 2 despite the growth progressively decreased with increasing stocking density, that is, 1.16 cm length and 0.017 g weight at 5,000 nos./m 2 (Dhara & Saha, 2013) and 21 dph magur fry Note. Min-Minimum; Max-Maximum; n-Number of fish sampled; a is the intercept; b is the slope; r 2 is the coefficient of determination.…”

Effects of Different Catfish Pituitary Gland Extract Dosages on Eggs and Hatchlings Quantity of African Catfish, Clarias gariepinus at a Constant Latency Period

“…The African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) has gained popularity in the aquaculture sector of Tanzania in the recent times [2,3]. Its demand has increased as food, control of over-population in tilapia ponds and as bait for the Nile perch fishery [4][5][6][7]. Most fish farmers in Tanzania and other developing countries have to obtain their seeds from wild capture, mainly from rivers.…”