Effects of long jack, Eurycoma longifolia on sperm quality and quantity of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus

The experiment attempts to study the effects of long jack, Eurycoma longifolia through the sperm quality and quantity of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus. Mostly farmers are using hormone to induce the reproduction in these fishes especially C. gariepinus. For expanding demand in C. gariepinus, there was expanded exertion in the improvement of method for production of fish in hatchery. Thus, this study was an alternative to improve the production of C. gariepinus. In the present study, two diets with crude protein of 40 % were formulated with different supplementation levels of E. longifolia powder; with no supplementation of E. longifolia (LJ0) and the supplementation of 5 % E. longifolia (LJ5). Eight males of C. gariepinus were randomly distributed into two fibre tanks (2×2×1.5 m) with four fish per tank. The tank contained green water (pH≈ 7.2, dissolved oxygen≈ 5.3 mg/L, temperature≈ 27.20°C). C. gariepinus were fed at 3% of body weight twice a day for a period of 30 days.The diet in LJ5 had significantly higher in sperm counts (12085.33±286.71x104 sperm/ml), milt volume (0.38±0.04 ml) and motility duration (24.11±0.96sec). While the result for diet in LJ0 in sperm count, milt volume and motility duration were 10014.67±273.76x104sperm/mL, 0.21±0.06 ml and 12.67±0.58sec.However, significant differences were not observed in the body weight gained, total length, specific growth rate and feed conversion ratio (FCR) among the two treatments. Besides, the results showed that E. longifolia possess promising pro-fertility which can be exploited in fish seeds production and 50 g/kg of E. longifolia based diet could give satisfactory and efficient result on the sperm quality and quantity of C. gariepinus