GONADAL DEVELOPMENT AND EARLY MATURITY OF GIANT GOURAMI IN INDONESIA

Gonadal development is part of the reproduction of fish before spawning. The stages of gonad maturity necessary to determine the ratio of fish to spawn or not (Suwarso and Sadhotomo, 1995). According Suwarso and Sadhotomo (1995), information on the life cycle in the reproductive aspects including the development of gonadal maturation from spawning until the next spawning. In addition, it is used to find out about the size or age of the fish were first ripe gonads, spawning time, and the intensity of spawning for one year (Effendie, 1979).

Research on the biological aspects of reproduction of giant gourami (O.gorami Lac) has been done using stem technology development surrogate in particular to determine the morphology and composition of spermatogonia cells of giant gourami in various sizes (Mauluddin, 2009). Gonad maturation level (GML) on ornamental has also been carried out with the addition of leaf application ketapang (Kadarini T et al, 2010). Research on the early gonadal development as a mature sex determination in has not been done. Therefore this research. In addition, to determine the gonad maturity level (GML), giant gourami of male and female gonad maturity index (GMI), gonad index (GI), and morphology and histology ovaries and testes in the male and females giant gouramy.

The results showed that there were  observations morphology and histology giant gourami (O.

gouramy) can be divided into five stages, namely the development of GML I (resting phase), GML II (developing phase), GML III (Maturing phase), GML IV (partially spent), and GML V (full spent). The gonads of female gonad have been ripe at the age of 23 months with the average weight of 20.85 ± 6.29 gram. The weight of 23-month-old male gonads was 0.57 ± 0.08 gram. The number of eggs were 257 eggs per gram weight of the gonads. Gonad maturity level of male and female on the morphology and histology  can be seen in the Table 1.