MULTIPLE SPAWNING IN ANABAS (ANABAS TESTUDINEUS) IN CAPTIVITY

Climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) is considered as an important candidate species for freshwater aquaculture, particularly due to its high consumer preference. Due to low fecundity of the species it is essential to maintain large number of brood fish for producing spawn in larg quantity. It is well known that repeated spawning in fish helps to produce higher quantity of spawn per unit body weight of female in a season, reducing the requirement of spawners and expenditure to rear them. However, there is no information available on the multiple spawning of this fish species under captive condition, to develop a standard practice for producing seed of good quality. The present study was aimed to examine the possibility of multiple induced spawning in this fish and to assess quality of eggs and spawn production through multiple spawning.