Abstract
A study was conducted to observe the breeding and larval rearing of Asian Catfish, Clarias batrachus fed with live and/or artificial feed for 21 days in an indoor hatchery. The brooders of C. batrachus (Av. wt of female 160 ± 10.5 g; Av. wt of male 120 ± 6.75 g) were procured from outside ponds and stocked in a pond near the experiment site 2-months prior to spawning. The fishes were successfully induced bred using ovaprim @ 1.0–2.0 ml/kg body weight (bw) to females and 0.5–1.0 ml/kg bw to males. Fertilization, hatching and survival percentages at spawn stage were respectively recorded 70.6 - 72.8, 60.7 - 55.3 and 54.3 - 56.2. After yolk-sac absorption, fry of three age groups 7, 14 and 21 days were subjected to feed trial using Artemia nauplii followed by laboratory made feed for 21 days. Weekly sampling indicated that higher age groups constantly maintained higher lengths and weights with highest survival in the age group of 14-days old fry and SGR in 7-days old. The quality of hatchery water was recorded for temperature 29 ± 1°C, pH 7.2 ± 0.2, DO 7.1 ± 0.3 mgL-1 and total alkalinity 132 ± 4.0 mgL-1 respectively.
Highlights
The Asian catfish, Clarias batrachus is one of the most popular food fish of India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Srilanka and Malaysia [1] The hardy nature and tolerance to adverse environmental conditions low oxygen levels in water enable its intensive culture with high production rate [2]
Several attempts have been made in past to induced bred C. batrachus using various hormones [3,4,5] the commercially available synthetic hormonal preparation Ovaprim® has been found most efficient inducing agent for the captive breeding of the species
High level survival of larvae to seed size is another challenge for the hatchery operators as no standardized protocol of feeding to larvae has so far been evolved
Summary
The Asian catfish, Clarias batrachus is one of the most popular food fish of India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Srilanka and Malaysia [1] The hardy nature and tolerance to adverse environmental conditions low oxygen levels in water enable its intensive culture with high production rate [2]. The major constraint for wide spread aquaculture of the species is non availability of seed both from hatcheries and natural resources due to depletion of natural stocks. Several attempts have been made in past to induced bred C. batrachus using various hormones [3,4,5] the commercially available synthetic hormonal preparation Ovaprim® has been found most efficient inducing agent for the captive breeding of the species. High level survival of larvae to seed size is another challenge for the hatchery operators as no standardized protocol of feeding to larvae has so far been evolved. The objective of the present study was to evaluate breeding and rearing of the early stages of Clarias batrachus on live and artificial feed
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