Development of an artificial breeding and hatchery technique for exotic ornamental fish Sahyadria denisonii (Day, 1865)

Sahyadria denisonii is one of the highly demanded exotic ornamental fish species. Development of artificial breeding technique for Sahyadria denisonii is important under local conditions. The captive breeding of this species did not occur under the environmental manipulation method used in the present study. However, breeding was successful, when Ovaprim hormone was injected at 0.5 ml per kg of body weight of the female at 9 h latency period. Average number of eggs laid was 216±33 and average egg size at maturity was 1.6±0.2 mm. Duration of development of eggs to hatchling was 36 h from time of fertilization. Feeding Artemia nauplii as an initial feed resulted a significantly higher growth (P<0.05) while micro-worm fed hatchlings exhibited significantly high survival rate. Therefore, results of this study revealed that a single dose of Ovaprim at 0.5 mL/kg of BW of females and half of that dose for males can be used for breeding of S. denisonii. Artemia nauplii, and micro-worm larval feeds can be used as the starter feeds for S .denisonii post-larvae.