Studies on cross-breeding of Clarias macrocephalus vs C.gariepinus and some aspects of their hybrid development

Abstract

A study on identifying the feasibility of producing hybrid catfish progeny through cross-breeding of Asian catfish (C. macrocephalus) and African catfish (C. gariepinus) were conducted at the Freshwater Hatchery of Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia. Results from three trials of reciprocal cross-breeding clearly showed that hybrid catfish progeny were successfully produced through cross-breed between C. macrocephalus female X C. gariepinus male (MG). This mating resulted in excellent breeding performances with fertilization, hatching and deformation rates averaged at 83.54%, 86.04% and 5.76%, respectively. However, cross-breed between C. gariepinus female X C. macrocephalus male (GM) resulted in low fertilization and hatching rates (48.90%, 40.35%).