Successful Induced Spawning of Indian Major Carps Following Injection of Buserelin and Domperidone

Abstract

The major source of carp seed in India is from induced breeding and most seed farms in Karnataka State use ovaprim for commercial production of fish fry. The present study was conducted to investigate the possibility of employing a combination of buserelin (an analogue of mammalian LHRH) and domperidone (a dopamine antagonist) for the induced spawning of the three Indian major carps, viz. catla (Catla catla), rohu (Labeo rohita) and mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala). All the three species could be successfully induced bred using a combination of mLHRH-a and domperidone (DOM) through a single injection. Important aspects of induced spawning such as breeding response, fecundity, latent period, fertilization rate and quantity of spawn obtained with mLHRH-a +DOM were compared with those of sGnRH-a and DOM combination (ovaprim), a widely used fish spawning agent in India. The breeding response of females of all the three species treated with mLHRHa+DOM was 100%, while it varied between 86 and 100% for sGnRH-a+DOM treated fish. The fecundity, fertilization rate and quantity of three-day-old spawn realized for the former combination were equal or better than those obtained for the latter. Among the different doses tested, 0.8, 0.7-0.8 and 0.7 mlxkg-1 body weight (b.w.) of female produced consistently good results in catla, rohu and mrigal, respectively. Lower doses (0.4-0.5 mlxkg-1 b.w.) also led to the mass spawning of mrigal, with fertilization rate ranging between 89 and 93%. In all the trials, the males received either sGnRH-a+DOM at 0.1-0.2 mlxkg-1 b.w. or mLHRH-a+DOM at one-third of the dose given to the female. The quality of carp seed produced through mLHRH-a+DOM was good and comparable to that obtained with sGnRH-a+DOM and it is more economical than the former spawning agent.