Progress in Studies on Hormonal Sex Reversal and Genetic Sex Control in Black Crappie

Abstract

Sex control can solve the problem of stunted black crappie populations in small impoundments. The main objectives of the present study were (1) to identify sex-reversed males of black crappie from a previously obtained androgen-treated group using test crosses, and (2) to develop broodstock of sex-reversed males by masculinization of fish from those crosses. An additional objective of the study was to try to identify sex-specific RAPD markers, which might be used for identification of sex-reversed males. The progenies resulting from test crosses were divided into two groups: Group I (control) fish were raised without hormonal treatment, while Group II fish were subjected to androgen (MT) treatment. Seven progenies were obtained from the cross of preliminary androgen-treated males with normal females. Six of seven progenies had sex ratio in Groups I close to 1:1, and one progeny consisted of females only. This shows that only one male, which generated this progeny, was a sex-reversed homogametic fish (XX) while the other males were heterogametic normal (XY) fish. In Group II the androgen 17α-methyltestosterone (MT) was orally administered to crappie with an artificial diet (30 mg/kg) for 40 days beginning 35 days post hatching; androgen-treated groups consisted of 95-100% males. Sex-specific random-amplified polymorphic DNA markers were not identified in black crappie.

Culturing Crappies in Indoor Water Recirculating Aquaculture Systems

“…Most of the recent aquaculture-related studies of Black Crappies or White Crappies have focused on developing monosex, infertile, or non-reproducing populations (Baldwin et al 1990;Parsons 1993;Gomelsky et al 2002;Arslan and Phelps 2004;Cuevas-Uribe et al 2009) for stocking in ponds and small lakes, normally resulting in low-productivity, stunted crappie populations.…”

Aquaculture Techniques for Crappie, Pomoxis spp., Culture

“…Gomelsky et al () induced male black crappie to spawn with a single dose at 50 µg/kg and induced female black crappie using 100 µg/kg, with a 10% priming dose and 90% resolving dose 12 h later. Studies by Al‐ablani and Phelps (), Arslan and Phelps (), and Cuevas‐Uribe et al () used HCG for spawning black crappie, using the same 10% priming dose and 90% resolving dosage reported by Gomelsky et al (), at a rate of 1000 IU/kg for females and 500 IU/kg for males. Spawning time following hormone inoculation from the aforementioned studies ranges from 24 to 48 h. Al‐ablani and Phelps () reported a spawning success rate of 86% using HCG at a temperature of 24 C. However, because these studies focused on the production of monosex crappie, replicated experiments to determine the preferred artificial spawning methods for white and black crappie have not been performed.…”

“…Hatchery research advances in crappie aquaculture over the past few decades indicate black crappie can be cultured in high‐density indoor systems (Willis and Flickinger ; Parsons ; Dudenhoeffer et al ). However, much of the documented research has focused on production of infertile, monosex, or triploid hybrid crappie for stocking in small water bodies (Al‐ablani and Phelps ; Parsons ; Arslan and Phelps ; and Cuevas‐Uribe et al ) and larval white and black crappie feed habituation in tanks and raceways (Smeltzer and Flickinger ; Thomas ; Hayward and Arnold ; Parsons ; Dudenhoeffer et al ). Diet, tank size, flow rate, feed suspension time, and fish size appear to be important factors for successful feed habituation in triploid hybrid crappie.…”

“…Research has demonstrated that juvenile crappie can be cultured in high-density tank systems (Willis and Flickinger 1981;Parsons 1999;Dudenhoeffer et al 2014) and feed trained in both tanks and raceways (Smeltzer and Flickinger 1991;Thomas 1995;Hayward and Arnold 1996;Parsons 1999;Dudenhoeffer et al 2014). Reproductive research has focused primarily on the production of infertile, monosex, or triploid crappie for stocking in small water bodies (Al-ablani and Phelps 1997;Parsons 1999;Arslan and Phelps 2004;Cuevas-Uribe et al 2009). Several publications indicate crappie can be induced to spawn using luteinizing hormone releasing hormone analogue (LHRHa) and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) either volitionally in aquaria (Al-ablani and Phelps 1997; Arslan and Phelps 2004;Gomelsky et al 2005;Cuevas-Uribe et al 2009) or by strip spawning (Gomelsky et al 2000(Gomelsky et al , 2002, although these studies did not focus on spawning methods or perform comparative experiments to determine the preferred hormone for ovulation induction.…”

White Crappie Tank Culture and Out‐of‐Season Spawning

“…Hatchery research advances in crappie aquaculture over the past few decades indicate that juvenile crappies can be cultured in high-density indoor systems (Willis and Flickinger 1981;Parsons 1999;Dudenhoeffer et al 2014). Limited research has been conducted, mainly focusing on production of infertile monosex or triploid crappies for stocking in small water bodies (Baldwin et al 1990;Al-ablani and Phelps 1997;Parsons 1999;Arslan and Phelps 2004;Cuevas-Uribe et al 2009). Studies using adult crappie in tank culture systems have been hindered by disease-related mortality.…”