INDUCED BREEDING, IN VITRO FERTILIZATION AND EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT OF ASIAN CATFISH Clarias batrachus

Induced breeding of C. batrachus was done by injecting Ovprim at a dosage of 1.5 ml/kg intramuscularly.Testes were surgically removed from the matured males and sperm suspension made in Hanks balanced salt solution (HBSS). In vitro fertilization was done by stripping the females and mixing the sperm suspension. The sex ratio for in vitro fertilization was 2 females: 1 male. The fertilized eggs were incubated in plastic trays and fertilization and hatching percentages were calculated. The length, weight of the injected brooders, latency period, fertilization and hatching percentage were presented in Table 1. A summary of the timing of the important ontogenetic events were photographed using Nikon Zoom Stereo Microscope and the details are presented in Table 2.