EFFICACY OF TWO INDUCING AGENTS CRUDE PITUITARY EXTRACT AND OVATIDE IN THE INDUCED BREEDING OF SILVER BARB Puntius gonionotus

Silver barb Puntius gonionotus is a medium carp species which proffer opportunities for utilization of seasonal ponds in its grow-out culture. However, the availability of quality seeds remains as one of the major impediments in its culture. Despite of prolonged practice and considerable refinement, hypophysation procedure still seems to be lacking in sufficient standardization background basically the problems of dose and selection of broods. Therefore, an attempt was made to optimize the dose of inducing agents and observe their efficacy in producing quality seeds of P. gonionotus.

An experiment for induced breeding of P. gonionotus was conducted using two inducing agents, crude pituitary extract (CPE) and Ovatide. The two hormones were administered individually to the species in three dose combinations i.e. CPE at 10 & 3 mg/Kg, 12 & 4 mg/Kg and 14 & 6 mg/Kg body weight and Ovatide at 0.3 & 0.2 ml/Kg, 0.6 & 0.2 ml/Kg and 0.9 & 0.2 ml/Kg body weight for female and male respectively. The healthy brooders of over one-year age group with size range 250 - 350 g were selected for the breeding trial. Sex ratio 1:2 (female: male) was maintained in breeding sets. The spawning response was recorded to be best with the hormonal administration at 12 mg/kg body weight of fish in contrast to the other two dosages of CPE. The latency period ranged between 6 - 8 h in all the CPE doses. Correspondingly, the highest number of eggs ovulated per female, fertilization rate and hatching rate and lowest latency period (6 h) was observed at 0.6 ml/kg body weight Ovatide, as compared to the other two dosages. Both the inducing agents showed their efficacy at a particular dosage in the overall breeding response of the fish. However, the creditable results were shown by Ovatide than the CPE. Thus, from this comparative study it can be recommended that Ovatide at 0.6 & 0.2ml/Kg body weight for female & male respectively can be used for a successful induced breeding of P. gonionotus.