Breeding and embryonic development of an indigenous ornamental fish Trichogaster lalius (Hamilton, 1822) in captive condition

Abstract

The present study was conducted to perform the captive breeding and embryonic development of dwarf gourami Trichogaster lalius (Hamilton, 1822) in control condition at the Laboratory of Faculty of Fishery Sciences, WBUAFS, Kolkata, West Bengal between May and June, 2016. A total 10 sets of experiment were conducted by keeping one pair of healthily fish (male and female 1:1 ratio) for each set. The absolute fecundity was ranged from 1000 to 1350. The fertilization rate was found to be 63±0.50% and incubation period was recorded 23 to 26 hours at 29.15 ± 0.95 oC. The fertilized eggs were not adhesive, golden in colour and optically transparent and size was ranged from 0.60 ± 0.05 to 0.69 ± 0.08 mm. The present findings established that T. lalius can easily bred in captive condition by maintaining suitable environmental parameters which is prerequisite to conserve the species in natural water bodies.