-Five isonitrogenous diets (∼33% crude protein) were fed to the brood female carp, Catla catla (weighing 3.0 to 5.5 kg), for a period of 93 days in order to observe their breeding performance in earthen ponds. Diet-I (control) contained only basic ingredients like rice bran, groundnut oil cake, roasted soybean meal, fish meal and mineral mixture; diet-II contained added vitamins; diet-III contained added vitamins and vegetable oil (rich in n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, PUFA); diet-IV contained added vitamins and fish oil (rich in n-3 PUFA); and diet-V contained added vitamins and a mixture of vegetable and fish oils. The results showed that nutritional quality of the diet considerably influenced breeding performance in the species. The total number of matured females was the highest in the diet-V group and maturity was advanced by 35 days in this group compared to the control. In diet-III and diet-V groups, all the maturated females bred fully and the relative fecundity was increased significantly in diet III, IV and V. The maximum (73.4%) fertilisation rate was observed in the diet-V group, followed by 61.3%, 56.8%, 49% and 22.7% in diet-I, diet-IV, diet-III and diet-II groups respectively. Most of the eggs in the diet-II treatment group remained immature. The various data thus obtained suggest that dietary supplementation of both n-3 and n-6 PUFA, is essential to improve gonadal maturation, breeding performance and spawn recovery in the Catla female broodstock. diet / fatty acid / broodstock / breeding performance / Catla Reprod. Nutr. Dev. 41 (2001) 365-375 365

Female Catla catla brood fish were reared in 12 ponds (0.03–0.05 ha) and fed daily once in the morning at 30 g kg−1 body weight for 150 days with formulated feeds (six treatment feeds each with two replicates of pond) to study the breeding performances. The feed ingredients were rice polish (RP) and groundnut oil cake (GNOC) (1 : 1) for T1 (control); RP, GNOC and fish meal (FM) (3 : 4 : 3) for T2; RP, GNOC, FM and soybean meal (SM) (3 : 4 : 2 : 1) for T3; RP, GNOC, FM and SM (3 : 4 : 1: 2) for T4; RP, GNOC, FM and SM (3 : 4 : 1 : 2) with added vitamin–mineral (VM) premix for T5; RP, GNOC, FM and SM (3 : 4 : 1 : 2) with added VM and vegetable oil for T6. Results indicated that except the feed T6, all other feed (T2–T5) with 338–344 g crude protein (CP) kg−1 feed enhanced the breeding performances of the fish compared with control (262 g CP kg−1). The feed T3 showed the best performances in terms of matured female (%), fully bred female (%), relative fecundity, spawn production and profit. This suggests that a combination of RP, GNOC, FM and SM at definite proportion could supply the essential nutrients needed for higher breeding response.