Frozen-thawed Sperm Motility Characteristics of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) by Using Glycerol or DMSO Based Extender

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Tris-Citrate Acid Yolk Extender and Fish Ringer Extender on sperm motility characteristics in African Catfish with special focus on equilibration durations (120, 140 or 160 min), vapor temperatures (-80,-90 or-100oC) and vapor exposure durations (5, 10 or 15 min) as well as the fish body weights. Combination of DMSO (10%) in FRE extender showed significantly the highest values of respective post-thawed total motility and progressive motility (73.52±1.35% and 18.37±0.61%) as compared to the three molarities of glycerol (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 M) in TCAYE extender (32.27±2.05 and 3.75±0.41; 24.50±1.81 and 2.63±0.29; 26.74±2.14 and 2.45±0.37). It is suggested that FRE is a preferred extender to TCAYE to freeze the African Catfish sperm.