Validation of an Ovarian Biopsy Method for Monitoring Oocyte Development in the Fat Snook, Centropomus

The validation of an ovarian biopsy method for in vivo assessment of oocyte maturation in Centropomus parallelus was studied. Diameters of intra-ovarian oocytes siphoned with cannula were analyzed fresh and preserved with 1 % formalin in 0.7 % NaCl solution. Oocytes in different stages were present along the ovaries, up to the tertiary yolk globule stage, which had a unimodal diameter frequency distribution. The oocyte diameter means were not significantly different at four sites along the ovaries (P> 0.05). Samples obtained with cannula were representative of the ovary central portion, in vivo and in vitro samples of the seven females examined were not significantly different (P> 0.05). An estimate of the coefficient of variation corrected for bias (P < 0.05) for 8 repeated in vivo samples was 1.9 ± 0.6. The results demonstrated that for the species, the biopsy method was satisfactory, providing representative samples of the ovaries