Induced Breeding

The Bornean Spotted Barb is endemic fish species and widely distributed throughout Borneo in various freshwater bodies and can be considered as a potential aquaculture candidate for food security and the ornamental trade. However there has yet to be scientific studies on the early life history and developmental stages of this species. Thus the present study reveals the embryonic development of Puntius sealei embryo, from fertilization to post-hatching using the induced breeding method. The induced spawning on P. sealei using Ovaprim hormone at a dose of 0.5 ml/kg for females and 0.25ml/kg for males respectively was successfully conducted and the embryonic development of the fertilized eggs were observed. The zygote, cleavage, blastula, gastrula, segmentation, and larval phases were the six major stages of embryogenesis that investigated in this experiment. This study contributed major knowledge to the early developmental biology of this particular species. The information will be useful for accessing the potentiality of this species for aquaculture as well as the management, and production of the species.

Induced breeding of African catfish Clarias gariepinus was conducted to investigate the effect of different male-female broodstock ratio on the breeding performance. The broodstock for the experiment were collected from the National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research, New Bussa and the experiment was carried out at the hatchery section of Happy Island Garden, Sokoto. The experiment was set up in a completely randomized design (CRD) with treatment combinations as; 1:1 male:female broodstock ratio (Treatment A), 1:2 male:female broodstock ratio (Treatment B) and 1:3 male:female broodstock ratio (Treatment C). The broodstocks were injected with ovulin hormone at the recommended dosage of 0.5ml/kg body weight for the females and half dosage was administered to the males. The result showed that Treatment A had the highest fertilization rate (71.66%) and hatching rate (88.70%) as well as survival rate (73.17%) followed by Treatment B with 68.69% fertilization but had the least values for hatching rate (80.58%) and survival rate (70.83%). Treatment C had the lowest value for fertilization (64.25%) but was following Treatment A in terms of hatching rate (84.54%) and survival rate (72.13%). However, no significant differences (p>0.05) exist between the treatments in terms of the breeding performance parameters examined. The present study showed that C. gariepinus of mean body weight of 600g can successfully be induced with ovulin hormone at different broodstock ratios to ovulate and obtain eggs and larvae of good quality.The African catfish is widely considered as the leading cultured fish in Nigeria and it is considered as the most sought after fish species among fish farmers and consumers because it commands a very good commercial value (Oladosu et al., 1993). It is a very important fish in the commercial fisheries in Nigeria because of its desirable qualities such as ability to tolerate low dissolved oxygen, ability to produce in captivity and fast growth rate. It is also observed to have efficient feed conversion capacity (Nweke and Ugwumba, 2005).