Induced Breeding and Larvae Rearing of Critically Endangered Riverine Catfish Rita rita (Hamilton)

The paper reports the induced breeding of Rita rita using carpPG (collected pituitary gland from carp fish) extracts, ovaprim and the effects of stocking density on growth and survival rates of larvae. Three doses of carpPG extracts viz. 90, 100 and 110 mg.kg^-1 body weight of female were used while males were treated with 40mg.kg^-1 body weight in all cases. The dose of 100 mg.kg-1 body weight was proved the most suitable in terms of ovulation (100%), fertilisation (82.50±6.46 %), and hatching rates (62.75±7.182%). In case of ovaprim, females were treated with 0.5 and 1.0 mL.kg^-1 body weight and males received a dose of 0.5 mL.kg^-1 body weight but both doses failed to ovulate the fish. The growth study was carried out using two stocking densities (1 larva and 2 larvae.L^-1 of water) with 5 day-old larvae fed chopped tubificid worms ad libitum. Better growth and survival rates were found at stocking density of 1 larva.L^-1.