Influence of Fennel Foeniculum Vulgar Extract on Fertility, Growth rate and Histology of Gonads on Guppy Poecilia reticulata

Ornamental fish breeding and growing are an important sector of aquaculture, which has increased income and occupations in the country in recent years. Presenting the new methods and producing the new food supplements could have effects on efficiency and sustainable development in this new technology. In the present study, the effect of ethanolic extract of F. vulgar having phytoestrogenic compounds on growth performance and fertility rate and gonadal tissue changes of guppy was tested for offering it as a food supplement in the aquaculture. 360 juvenile guppies were distributed into 12 glass aquaria at 30 fish/ tank in triplicate. Four diets containing varying levels of alcoholic extract of F. vulgar seed at 0. 75, 100, 125 µl/g were prepared and fed to the fish twice daily at 3% of their body weight for 133 days. Biometry of the groups was done every 15days. The born fry were separated from the mothers and counted. One fish from all groups were fixed in formalin buffered 10% every 15days for histology. 5 microns sections were prepared and stained with H&E technique. The results for each group were compared statistically with those for the control. Analysis of the results showed a significant increase in weight gain and fertility rate in group T2 (100 µl/g). Gonad cells increased in the test groups comparing with control group simultaneously with raise in phytostrogenes in tests groups. In the follicles, enlarge granulose layer with increase in number of ovules in different evolution stage (O1-O7), were seen in test groups. The increase in fertility rate in tests groups may be due to the increase in the level of estrogenic compound which in turn could be due to the action of the extract present in the diet. The observation made in the present investigation show that F. vulgar can act as a phytoestrogenic compound at low concentration and hence F. vulgar can be considered as a potential as well as a natural additive to fish feed in commercial aquaculture to augment the fertility rate

Alireza Nazari1,*, Shahla Roozbehani1

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