Induced breeding of Cresent Perch, Terapon jarbua under controlled conditions

Abstract

Crescent Perch, <em>Terapon jarbua</em> is an important candidate species for brackish water ornamental and food fishes. This fish inhabits brackish water of much of the tropical and sub-tropical Indo-Pacific region on sandy bottom including estuaries. During December 2014, a fully matured female with average egg diameter of 450 μ along with two oozing males were selected for induced spawning trials. Fishes were induced to spawn with Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, HCG hormone @300 IU/kg body weight and Luteinising Hormone Releasing Hormone analogue, LHRHa @ 75 µg/kg body weight; half the hormone dose was administered to male fishes. After 36 h of post-injection, all sets were spawned (fertilized egg mean size: 720 µ± 34.96 µ); the eggs were semi-buoyant in nature, Hatching was noticed after 16-18 h of incubation period. Average size of hatchlings was 2.04 mm ± 0.05 with the yolk sac length of 75 µ and presence of a single oil globule. A total of 3 lakh newly hatched larvae from four sets were collected and used for standardization of nursery rearing protocol. The larvae were reared for 60 days feeding with rotifers and artemia nauplii which then reached the fry size of 30 mm with 20% of survival rate.