Study on the effects of different dietary fats on the ovarian tissues of striped murrel (Channa striatus).

Abstract

Different fats in the diets were used to examine their impact on the ovarian tissues of striped murrel (Channa striatus). The juveniles of the test fish were acclimatized on the diet prepared from the same feed ingredients as that of experimental diets excepting different fat sources used in the experiment. The fishes were subsequently fed with seven experimental diets (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6 and a control, F7 of natural foodstuffs, NATFO). F1 (L3HUF) contained 0.5% n-3 fatty acid& 7.5% saturated oil; F2 (H3HUF) 1.0% n-3 fatty acid& 7.0% saturated oil; F3 (MUSOL) 8.0% mustard oil; F4 (LINOL) 8.0% linseed oil; F5 (MIXOL) 4.0% mustard oil and 4.0 % linseed oil; F6 (SATOL) 8.0% saturated oil. Ovaries of 3 fishes from each treatment were excised and processed for routine histological evaluation. The cellular changes in ovarian tissues, following dietary fat incorporation, were assessed under light microscopy. The ovaries of all the fishes fed different experimental diets had more or less similar architecture of the ovarian follicles which indicated that the addition of 8% fats of these ingredients was unharmful to the fish. However, there was significant difference in the fecundity condition of the fish with these diets. The highest fecundity was observed with F-2 followed by F-1, F-4, F-3, F-5, F-7 and F-6. It was concluded that addition of various experimental fats has a significant positive development in the ovarian tissues in this species and linseed oil and mixed oil could be safely used for better and/ or higher follicular development and fecundity.