Performance of wild and farmed fish pituitary extracts in induced breeding of African catfish

Abstract

The African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) is one of the globally important fish for food and affordable animal protein source due to its resilience to poor water quality and fast growing in production systems. In the study, six females with mature eggs were treated with three sources of pituitary gland extracts. One was immediately obtained from wild (not conditioned) and used to induce spawning, the second category were obtained from the wild but first conditioned for a year, and the third category of glands were obtained from the farmed fish. Each treatment was done in three (3) tanks and in three triplicates, making a total of nine (9) tanks in the experiment. Fertilization and hatchability rates were estimated from the total number of eggs contained in 6 g of eggs from each of the nine tanks. Larval survival was estimated based on counting the dead larvae against a known number of hatched larvae in each of the nine tanks. The data collected on fertilization, hatchability and larval survival rates was subjected to one-way ANOVA analysis. Results indicated that there were no significant differences in fertilization, hatchability and larval survival due to the three sources of pituitary extracts used. For a seed multiplier, any of the three sources used will produce the same results. However, it is inevitable that the seed multipliers use the wild sources to reduce on the cost of maintaining the fish in production systems. Fresh wild African catfish pituitaries can cheaply be directly obtained from traders or on landing sites in large quantities and can be preserved for continued used in the hatchery.