Induced breeding of Clarias anguillaris with Xenopus leavies (African clawed frog) crude pituitary glands

Ripe C. anguillaris, size ranging from 350-700g total body weight (TBW), were treated with frog (Xenopus laevis) crude pituitary glands at four treatment levels of 1 pituitary, 2 pituitaries and 3 pituitaries per broodstock of mean weight 434.44 ~c 79.39g and Ovaprim for control. Each treatment was replicated three times. The frogs weight ranged from 39.40- 60.00 g. The latency period before successful stripping was 14 hours with one pituitary hormone dosage, 12 hours with two pituitaries and 9 hours with three pituitaries. Eggs were incubated at temperature range of 26 - 27~'C. Hatching started after 24 hrs and was completed by 36 hrs of incubation. Egg yield or fecundity was observed to vary according to the dosage of pituitary glands administered. Two pituitary glands injection yielded the highest egg number with mean fecundity of 43749~c 3005 followed by one pituitary gland treatment with mean fecundity of 34786 ~c 5386. Three pituitary glands treatment gave the least fecundity of 26007 ~c 4360. Percentage fertilization and hatching of the eggs were also higher in two pituitary glands treatment with 98% fertilization and hatching. This was followed by one pituitary (98% fertilization and 75.% hatching) and three pituitary glands with 98%fertilization and 62% hatching. The fries were reared for 8 weeks. Mortality was observed to be highest during the second week in all the three treatments. Treatment two (2 pituitaries) still had the highest survival of 68.40% followed by treatment one (1 pituitary) with 29.60% survival and treatment three (3 pituitaries) with only 4.80% survival. The stock stabilized and no mortality (0%) was recorded from 3rd to 8th weeks of rearing. Results indicated that 2 pituitary glands treatment was most effective followed by 1 and 3 glands treatments respectively. Weight of frogs and their respective pituitaries and weight of fish appeared to have relative effects on their productivity. Three frogs (F) of mean weight 67.52 ~c 33.70 were observed to be an over dose to a fish of 434.44 g mean weight.

Includes: 2 tables;Also includes: 10 refs.