Abstract

The African catfish Clarias gariepinusis one of the most relished fish for aquaculture in West Africa, and in particular Nigeria. However, there is decline in fish production due to the scarcity of fish seed for stocking. Hence, the study aimed at addressing the shortage in fish seed through the use of hypophysation, by comparing the effectiveness of Ovulin and Chicken pituitary gland extract. Two matured and healthy female broodstock were selected and induced with intramuscular injection of Ovulin and Chicken pituitary gland extract. The first broodstock was administered with Ovulin (0.5ml/g) and the second was administered with two chicken pituitary gland extract (1.5mL/kg). The latency period for the two induced female broodstock was 13 hours, after which stripping and fertilization with milt collected from the two lobes of two matured male broodstock. The fertilized eggs were incubated at 28 hours. One hundred hatchlings were selected from each fertilized female broodstock eggs and growth performance, and survival rate were monitored for 8 weeks, to evaluate the effectiveness of the two hormones. Data were collected at each stage, analyzed using ANOVA, while the means were separated using Turkey range test. The Ovulin and Chicken pituitary gland extract treatments had no significant difference (P>0.05) in the number of fertilized eggs, however Ovulin was much higher with 82 fertilized eggs. The hatchability was not significantly different (P>0.05), however the hatchability rate was higher in Ovulin than Chicken pituitary gland extract with 1.66.