Triplicate
design for treatment tanks
The experimental
units consist of nine (9) large circular basins of 70 liters capacity
each. These were arranged randomly over
the work space.
Each basin (test
tank) was filled with water to a depth of 8 cm with water collected from one of
the three sources – fresh river water; hand dug well water and borehole
water. The tanks were pre-labeled with
the code of the test water before the introduction of fertilized eggs. The half
and top method of water changing was adopted, such that 50% of the water was
removed and top again in each of the test tanks on daily bases.
Water Sources/Water
quality monitoring
Water samples were
sourced from three (3) places namely; the departmental Borehole water, hand dug
well water from Eagle Island and fresh river water from Luubara creek at Duburo
town. A 50 liters jerry-can was used to collect water from each of the sources
and transported to the fisheries laboratory.
Water quality
parameters such as; pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, total
dissolve solid (TDS), ammonia and conductivity were measured using a digital
prob (Extech model DO700). Measurement of these water qualities was carried out
before the experiment begins. Daily monitoring of the test water quality were
carried out.
Test
Organisms and spawning agent
Larval of Clarias gariepinus (African catfish) were
used for the study.
A total of two (2)
brood stocks of C. gariepinus (1
male: 1 female) was bought from a commercial farm in Port-harcourt, Rivers
State. The brood stocks were of similar weight and not less than 1kg. Selection
of brood stocks was based on the readiness of the genitals. Gravid female brood stocks of C. gariepinus was selected based on the
swollen, reddish genital opening and with the release of ripe eggs (golden
colour) by gentle press on the abdomen.
Sexually ready males was selected based on the reddish and pointed
genital papillae.
Brood stocks were
transported from the commercial farm to the Fisheries laboratory of the Rivers
State University. Brood stocks were
acclimated and conditioned in separate tanks a day before inducement.
Ovaprim (SGnRHa +
Domperidone) was used as the spawning agent during this study. The recommended
dose is 0.5ml/kg of fish.
Artificial
Propagation
The female brood
stock was injected intramuscularly into the dorsal muscle above the lateral
line with ovaprim at 0.5ml/kg fish on the same day. After which they were kept
in individual troughs with water level reduced to the minimum for conditioning
of fish.
The male brood stock was
sacrificed and teste removed. Milt was
collected by cutting the testes into smaller pieces, squeezed and washed into
already prepared 0.9% concentration of saline solution. This is to keep the sperm alive but not
active.
Female brood was
brought out from the bowl, the head covered with a moist towel and the body
wiped dry. This action is to prevent the eggs coming in contact with water which
will seal the micropyle and prevent fertilization. Hence, gentle pressure was
applied on the anterior-posterior direction of the abdomen to strip the eggs.
Stripped eggs were collected into pre-weighed dry bowls and weighed again.
Thereafter, the milt
collected in physiological saline was poured on the stripped eggs and stirred
thoroughly to enable the milt saturate the eggs. There was continuous mixing to
ensure increased fertilization and to avoid the eggs sticking together. This
process lasted for 60 to 90 seconds. The
fertilized eggs was spread on a spawning sponge in each treatment tank for
incubation and allowed to stand for 36 hours (until hatched) hatching. When
hatching is completed, larval are expected to go to the bottom of the
incubation trough. While unhatched eggs remains attached to the spawning
sponge. Both the unhatched eggs and spawning sponge was removed from the tanks
after the hatching to avoid fungi attack on the larvae.
Determination
of Percentage Hatchability and Survival
The numbers of eggs
released was calculated using this method:
DISCUSSIONS
Water
Quality Parameters
Fish larval are very
sensitive to changes in their environment. Any changes add stress to the fish larval
and the larger and faster the changes, the greater the stress. So the
maintenance of all the factors becomes very essential for getting maximum yield
in a hatchery (Boyd, 1982).
Water Temperature
influences performance of fish species, especially the interval between
fertilization and embryonic development (Laurel and Bradbury, 2006). Small
fluctuation affects a species vital rate (O’Connor et al., 2007), genetic structure (Bradbury et al., 2010) and survival (Houde, 2008).It also affects dissolved
oxygen level in water - solubility of oxygen and rate of oxidation of organic
matter (Pepin, 1991). The water temperature recorded in this study were within
temperature values obtained in an earlier researched (King, 1998), for
successful fish production and Boyd and Tucker (1998) for optimum production of
Clarias species.
Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
is a very basic requirement for aquaculture species. Is a complex parameter
because its concentrations are dependent upon many processes. Reduced levels
impair growth and development of different life stages of fish (Boyd,1982;
Chatakond and Torrans, 2012).Such impact affects fitness and survival by
altering embryo incubation periods, and decreasing feeding activity (Townsend et
al., 2003). DO values measured were within values obtained in an earlier
research (Ufodike and Garba, 1992), for adequate culture (Afroz et al., 2014) production of Clarias
larva species.
Hydrogen ion
concentration (pH) is an important parameter which determines the suitability
of water for various purposes. Source water with a proper pH is imperative, and
the pH of any potential source water should be screened. An extreme pH value
affects growth and cause mortality in fish culture with a lower tolerance at
embryonic and larval stages (Lloyd and Jordan, 1964; Zweig et al.,
1999). At lower pH, ability to maintain its salt balance is affected, <6.5
species experience slow growth ≤pH 4 and >pH 11 most species die. The
pH values obtained for this study are within the limits for optimum larva fish
production (Boyd, 1982).
The salinity values
were within freshwater values and were within values recommended for production
of Clarias species (FAO, 2006). TDS
varies widely across the different water sources and were within TDS required
levels recommended (FAO, 1992) for a successful production of Clarias species. The variations in
electrical conductivity were wide and were within the desired and acceptable
range and agree with earlier researched (Boyd, 1990)
for optimum production of Clarias
species.
Percentage
Hatchability
Percentage
hatchability is usually as low as between 50-70% in hatcheries (de Graaf et
al., 1995). However breeding failure has been attributed to biological (broodstock
size and age, strain and species) and environmental (dissolved oxygen, pH,
temperature, stocking density, photoperiod etc.) factors (Ataguba et al., 2012,
Ataguba et al., 2013). For this experiment the hatchability rate were
higher suggesting that the biological and environmental factors were suitable for
production of C. gariepinus. Percentage
hatchability varies in the different water source used for the study; Fisheries
Department’s Borehole water in rivers state university has the highest percentage
hatchability of 87.90%
while River water recorded the lowest values (79.97%) in hatchability. These values are
higher than those reported by de Graaf et al.(1995).
Percentage
Survival
Channel
catfish survival rates for production of fingerlings from fry in ponds ranges
from 40 to 85% (UFL, 2009); for Hybrid bass survival rates tend to be between
25 and 40 percent for hatcheries (Ludwig, 2004)and striped bass fingerlings are
between 25 and 40 percent (Brewer and Rees, 1990). Muskellunge survival rates
seem to be extremely low due to cannibalism (TWRA, 2012). For this experiment
the survival rate were much higher suggesting that the general conditions of
the water and hatchery were suitable for C.
gariepinus production. Larval survival varies in the different water sources,
as shown in the study; River water has the highest percentage survival of 99.5%
while Well water and Fisheries Department’s Borehole water were slightly lower
at 98.87% and 96.87% respectively.
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