Cyclic variations of gonad development of an air-breathing fish, Channa striata in the lentic and lotic environments

Abstract

The study was conducted to know the cyclic changes in gonadal maturation and to investigate the developmental stages of oocytes and testicular germ cells of an air-breathing fish, Channa striata. Fish were sampled monthly from lentic and lotic environments of three geographical locations of Bangladesh from December to November and the histological analysis of their gonad was done to evaluate the objectives. The highest mean GSI was 5.95 ± 0.20 for female in July and 0.14 ± 0.01 for male also in July showing that the gonadal development reached its peak during this month. The highest mean oocyte diameter was 1257.50 ± 24.17 μm observed in July implying that the oocyte reached maturity in this month. Histological study of ovary revealed the evidence of early yolk granule stage and late yolk granule stage from April to July. In case of male four stages of spermatogenesis were distinguished and spermatozoa were highly abundant in June and July. So the monthly pooled values of GSI and the analysis of gonadal histology indicated that the peak breeding season of C. striata occurred in July in the lentic and lotic environments. Samples collected from lentic and lotic habitats are suggestive of no difference in the development of the gonad. The results of the present study will be useful for selective breeding programme, conservation and sustainable fishery management of C. striata in its natural habitat.

Ovarian development and histological observations of threatened dwarf snakehead fish, Channa gachua (Hamilton, 1822)

“…In contrast to our reports, Al Mahmud et al (2016) reported the minimum GSI value during the month of September and higher values from April to July for female Channa striata . Similarly, highest values of GSI were recorded during April- July in Channa bleheri (Rinku et al, 2013) and during May - August in C. punctatus (Sunita et al, 2011, Lalta et al, 2011).…”

“…These different stages corresponded with those described macroscopically for M. montanus (Arockiaraj et al, 2004). However, microscopic examination of ovary sections reported by Al Mahmud et al (2016) revealed four stages of maturity in striated snakehead, Channa striata . The female fish showed significant (P < 0.05) weight changes in the ovaries corresponding to the three gametogenic stages (pre-spawning, spawning and post spawning) during different months of the year (Table 2).…”

“…Cyclic gonadal changes have been studied in a few Channa species viz. Channa marulius (Parameswaran and Murugesan, 1976), C. punctata (Srivastav and Srivastav, 1998) and C. striata (Al Mahmud et al, 2016).…”

Cyclic variations of gonad development of snow trout, Schizopyge niger from the river Jhelum of Kashmir Himalaya

“…Survival of any of these species in various seasonally changing environments depends on the development of mechanisms that permit it to adjust physiological functions to changes in that environment (Adriaenssens, Damme, Seebacher, & Wilson, ). Information regarding reproductive cycling and the relation of this cycling to the environment is very important for understanding the biology of a species as well as for scientific management of a fishery resource (Al Mahmud et al, ). Reproductive activities in most animals undergo cyclic changes and the patterns of these changes in the gonads are characteristics for each species (Lagler, Bardachi, Miller, & Passino, ).…”

A new chapter for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences as we re-launch with BioMed Central

“…BioMed Central and KOSFAS has been working hard for the last few months to publish the first FAS articles in 2016 and these first articles will cover the topics on fish reproduction physiology (Mahmud et al 2016), fish nutrition (Yun et al 2016), fish disease , and analytical chemistry in food sciences (Kim et al 2016). Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences will continue to publish articles on these topics and more as part of BioMed Central.…”