Effects of Medicinal Plant (Kigelia africana) on Sperm quality of African catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchel, 1822) Broodstock

Abstract

The effects of K. africana fruit (Lam. Benth), family bignoniaceae, were investigated on the sperm quality of C. gariepinus, (mean body weight, 396.05±7.04). Five diets with crude protein of 40% were formulated with different inclusion levels of K. africana powder. D1 (control) has 0 g/kg of the powder, while D2, D3, D4 and D5 has 50, 100, 150 and 200 g/kg of the K. africana powder. A total of 120 C. gariepinus were randomly distributed in triplicate into 15 concrete tanks (2×2×1.5m) at stocking density of 8 fish per tank and constant water level of 1m was maintained in the experimental tanks. The tank contained pond water (PH ≈ 7.2, oxygen≈ 4.3 mg/l, temperature≈ 26. 2 0 C). The fish were fed at 3% of body weight twice a day between 8.00-9.00 am and 4.00-5.00 pm for a period of 90 days. The qualities of the milt were assessed by aid of microscope and by fertility tests. The male brood fish fed 100 g/kg had significantly higher (P<0.05) sperm counts (6.5± 1.2x109 sperm/m), % motility (92%), fertilization ability (90.88±1.03), lower milt volume (1.45±0.71) and motility duration of (39.00±1.4). However, significant differences were not observed in the length and weight of the testes among the diet groups (p>0.05). The results of the study has shown that K. africana fruits possess promising pro-fertility which can be exploited in fish seeds production and 100 g/kg of K. africana based diet was the best tolerance level of inclusion, which could give satisfactory and efficient result on the sperm quality and fertility of C. gariepinus