Morphology of androgenetic and gynogenetic grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella (Valenciennes)

Abstract

Crosses between female carp x male grass carp resulted in androgenetic grass carp and hybrids. Fertilizing grass carp eggs with carp milt that had been irradiated with ultraviolet light for 15 min at 1.0 mW/cm2 produced gynogenetic grass carp. We compared the morphology of experimental progeny with that of the parental species to determine if inheritance was strictly matroclinous in gynogenesis and strictly patroclinous in andro‐genesis. Dorsal and anal fin rays, lateral line scales, gill rakers, pharyngeal teeth, and the relative length of the dorsal fin all suggested that gynogenetic grass carp were identical with the maternal species and androgenetic grass carp with the paternal species. Hybrids were intermediate between the parents except that the number of anal rays was identical with that in carp. The number of dorsal rays, the body depth, and the pharyngeal teeth in hybrids were more like those in carp than in grass carp, whereas the number of gill rakers was more similar to that in the paternal species.