Comparative Study for Different Sources of Reproductive Stimulating Materials and Their Effects on the Reproductive Performance of African Catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822)

摘要

African catfish, Clarias gariepinus , is a highly appreciated species for aquaculture. So, the present research was carried out to study the possibility of improving artificial reproduction of African catfish C. gariepinus brood stock by injection with some stimulating preparations. Females and males were divided into five treatments (T), each treatment had five females and two males, the females only were injected; T₂, was injected with imported Pregnyl^?; T₃, was injected with imported Argent^?; T₄, was injected with native carp pituitary gland and T₅, was injected with native catfish pituitary gland; but T₁, set as a control, without injection. The obtained results revealed that the ovary length was significantly (p≤0.05) longer in T₂, T₃ and T₄ than in T₁ and T₅. Also, T₃ gave the highest Absolute Fecundity (AF), being 119917 and T₂, T₄ and T₅ also represented higher AF, being 7.6, 7.8 and 3.9 times, respectively than T₁. Yet, T₃ gave the highest Relative Fecundity (RF), being 126.4 which was 8.5 times than T₁. There were significant differences among treatments for serum FSH, LH and progesterone (P4) but not for estrogen. Treatment No. 2 reflected the highest (p≤0.05) level of FSH and LH among all treatments but P4 level in each of T₂, T₃ and T₅ was significantly higher than T₁ and T₄. Histological examination of ovaries revealed normal structure of ovarian lamellae among all treatments and various development stages of oogenesis were observed. So, it could be concluded that T₃ followed by T₂ and T₅ were the best treatments for improving the reproductive performance of C . gariepinus concerning the significantly heaviest egg weight and highest AF, RF, serum FSH, LH and P4 than T₁ and T₄.