Effect of different doses of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) hormone on stripping response and reproductive performance of the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus).

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of different doses injection of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) hormone on stripping response and reproductive performance of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus). African catfish spawners were intramuscularly injected with different doses of HCG (500, 1500, 3000, 6000 IU/kg female); males were injected at half the female dose. The results showed that fish group injected by 6000 IU/ kg female had the highest ovaries weight and gonadsomatic index, but, recorded the lowest value from ovulated egg diameter. The lower latency period was recorded with 6000 IU/ kg female (12 h). While, the highest latency period were in 500, 1500 IU/ kg (28 h) and 3000 IU/ kg (22 h). The number of fertilized eggs/ female and fertilization rate (%) were significantly different (P£0.05) among the experimental treatments, with the highest number of fertilized eggs/ female and fertilization rate were observed with 6000 IU/ kg female (60848 fertilized eggs/ female with 84.45%) and the lowest number of fertilized eggs/ female and fertilization rate were presented with 500 IU/ kg female (3372 fertilized eggs/ female with 10.15%). The number of larvae/ female and hatching rate showed significant differences (P£0.05) among different level of HCG hormone with the highest number of larvae and hatching rate with 6000 IU/ kg female (49657 larvae/ female with 81.45%) followed by those 3000 IU/ kg female (43177 larvae/ female with 73.65%), 1500 IU/ kg female (12099 larvae/ female with 57.9 %), while the incubation eggs of group injected with 500 IU/ kg female don’t show any hatching larvae. It was observed, HCG hormone has successfully and accelerate induced spawning in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus)and increased in reproductive performance with the increase in HCG dosage.