Sex related differences in haematological parameters in cultured striped bass (Walbaum, 1752).

In recent years, health monitoring of fish has gained enormous importance (Iaria et al., 2019), and the study of blood parameters of cultured fish species is a very practical and useful tool to enable aquaculture systems advance (Fazio, 2019). The growing attention to fish haematology is also due to the relationship between haematological parameters and aquatic environmental pollution (Fazio et al., 2019a; 2019c; Sayed et al., 2019). Various exogenous factors such as environmental conditions, water pollution, and stress (Nikoo et al., 2010; Gabriel et al., 2011), and endogenous factors such as age, sex and fish species (Svetina et al., 2002; Nikoo et al., 2012) influence haematological parameters in fish values. Numerous studies have been conducted on the influence of these factors, and in particular of sex on blood parameters in different species of fish (Pourali Motlagh et al., 2012). Hybrid striped bass is a fish which is widely reared in Sicily (Santulli and Modica, 2009) where it represents one of the most important emerging aquaculture freshwater species raised for commercial use, as it is easy to breed and has a rapid growth rate.