Comparative Studies on The Hatchability, Performance and Survival Rate of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Larval Produced: Using Ovaprim and Catfish Pituitary Extract Hormones

Abstract

The study was conducted to compare the hatchability and survival rate of fries produced, using ova prim  and African cat fish pituitary extract  during  hypophysation.  The costs of hormones were also evaluated. The pituitary glands were extracted from four males. The females were injected intramuscularly with ova prim and pituitary suspension respectively. The fish were randomly selected into the tanks at the ratio of 4 males: 4 females.  All other conditions throughout the period of the experiment were the same across the treatments.

Hatching and latency periods were 48hours and 9.05 hours respectively for each of the female across the treatments The female fish injected with ova prim had  higher percentage hatchability (46.3%) compared with those injected with African catfish pituitary extract –ACPE  (25.99%).  The survival rate however showed a contrasting pattern to percentage hatchability. The survival rate was higher in female treated with ACPE (82.98%) and lower in female fish treated with ova prim (50.14%). Higher production cost was significantly (p<0.05)) incurred in ACPE compared with ova prim. In the same vein, ACPE had higher gross profit (N 68,060) and ova prim treated females had lower value (N 42,485.24). The results showed that both ACPE and ova prim aided spawning in African cat fish  although, female fish treated with ova prim  enhanced higher hatchability however, fingerlings produced from female fish treated with ACPE preformed excellently well in terms of survival and enhanced higher profitability. Therefore, it can be concluded that ACPE hormone yield the best results in hypophysation .

Key words: hatchability, hormones, hypophysation, larva , survival