Effects of Medicinal Plant (Kigelia Africana) on Sperm Quality of African Catfish Clarias Gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) Broodstock

The effects of K. africana fruit (Lam. Benth), family bignoniaceae, were investigated on the sperm quality of C. gariepinus, (mean body weight, 396.05±7.04). Five diets with crude protein of 40% were formulated with differentinclusion levels of K. africana powder. D1 (control) has 0 g/kg of the powder, while D2, D3, D4 and D5 has 50, 100, 150 and 200 g/kg of the K. africana powder. A total of 120 C. gariepinus were randomly distributed in triplicate into 15concrete tanks (2×2×1.5m) at stocking density of 8 fish per tank and constant water level of 1m was maintained in theexperimental tanks. The tank contained pond water (PH ≈ 7.2, oxygen≈ 4.3 mg/l, temperature≈ 26. 2 0C). The fish werefed at 3% of body weight twice a day between 8.00-9.00 am and 4.00-5.00 pm for a period of 90 days. The qualities ofthe milt were assessed by aid of microscope and by fertility tests. The male brood fish fed 100 g/kg had significantlyhigher (P<0.05) sperm counts (6.5± 1.2x109sperm/m), % motility (92%), fertilization ability (90.88±1.03), lower miltvolume (1.45±0.71) and motility duration of (39.00±1.4). However, significant differences were not observed in thelength and weight of the testes among the diet groups (p>0.05). The results of the study has shown that K. africanafruits possess promising pro-fertility which can be exploited in fish seeds production and 100 g/kg of K. africana baseddiet was the best tolerance level of inclusion, which could give satisfactory and efficient result on the sperm quality andfertility of C. gariepinus