Skin characteristic of Pangasius Catfish in Indonesia

Abstract

Pollution of the freshwater ecosystem can cause adverse effects on aquatic organisms, especially fish. Fish skin is a multi-purpose tissue that serves as the first barrier to protect the fish from aquatic pollution and defense system against pathogens. Pangasiidae is an economically important riverine catfishes that generally exist in freshwater from the Indian subcontinent to the Indonesian Archipelago. Among genera in Pangasiidae, the genus Pangasius has numerous species. Indonesia has 14 strains of this fish and 3 of them, Patin siam (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus), Patin Jambal (Pangasius djambal), and Patin Pasupati (Pangasius sp.), are commonly cultured. This study aimed to characterize the skin of three Pangasius strains commonly found in Indonesia. The study was conducted at the Aquaculture facilities of the Research Center of Limnology. Three strains of Pangasius catfish were obtained from aquaculture farms. The fish were measured for the total length and body weight. The proportion of head, skin, bone, and meat was calculated. Collagen was extracted from the skin and was analyzed for type I, by ELISA methods. The thickness of the skin collagen was measured under a microscope after stained by the Masson Trichrome technique. ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the skin collagen content and skin collagen thickness. The result showed that there was no significant difference in collagen content among the fish strain, however, the collagen thickness was different.