Research Article
Ukwe Isaac Oyekutor Kenoye and
Abstract
Comparative evaluations of efficacy and cost effectiveness of ovulin and ovaprim hormones in the breeding of the African catfish, Clarias gariepinus were assessed. Eighteen (18) gravid females and six (6) mature males of Clarias gariepinus were used for the experiment. The result obtained indicated that ovulin performed significantly better (p<0.05) in all the parameters investigated except in survival rate. Fertility rate of the eggs were higher in ovulin than ovaprim treated fish especially at 50% concentration where the percentage mean values were respectively 81.00 ± 18.51% and 57.33 ± 4.15%. The percentage hatchability showed higher result in ovulin than ovaprim. The percentage mean value of hatchability recorded using ovulin at 50% concentration was 78.53 ± 25.31%. At 75% concentration, the mean hatchability for ovulin and ovaprim were respectively 32.63 ± 13.81% and 31.13 ± 3.70% while 4.00 ± 0.00% and 18.1 ± 0.20% were recorded at 100% concentration. Latency period were consistently higher in ovulin treated fish when compared to ovaprim. However, the higher the hormone concentration, the lower the latency periods in both ovulin and ovaprim. Ovulin treated females had higher mean fingerling weight (14.33 ± 1.58 g) whereas fingerlings from female treated ovaprim had lower mean weight (8.66 ± 0.53 g). The study showed that ovulin is more cost effective than ovaprim since 0.36 ml of ovulin produced mean fingerling weight of 14.33 ± 1.58 g at the cost of ₦165.6 while 0.36 g of ovaprim produced mean weight of 8.66 ± 0.53 g of fingerling at ₦180.00.