The effects of African wild lettuce leaf meal (Lactuca taraxacifolia) were investigated on the sperm and egg quality of C. gariepinus, (mean body weight, 190.29g). Five diets with crude protein of 35% were formulated with different inclusion levels of wild lettuce leaf powder. T1 (control) has 0 g of WLM, while T2, T3, T4 and T5 has 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05g/100g of the diets. A total of 70 juveniles of C. gariepinus were randomly distributed twice into 120 liter tank at stocking density of 7 fish per tank and constant water level was maintained in the experimental tanks. The tank contained pond water (PH ≈ 7, oxygen≈ 4.3 mg/l, temperature≈ 26. 2 0C). The fish were fed to satiation twice a day between 8.00hrs and 17hrs for a period of 84 days. At the end of the feeding trials, the sperm and egg sacs were excised from the fish samples selected and the sperm and eggs were collected for analysis. Data collected on sperm weight, sperm volume, motility, egg weight and egg number were subjected to one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Completely Randomized Design (CRD).The result shows that in treatment 5, Egg weight, number and volume were higher (73.75g, 55072.27, and 723ml, respectively) compared to treatments 2, 3, 4, and the control. The control had a higher sperm weight than treatments 2, 3, 4, and 5. Treatment 4 exhibited the highest sperm motility (72.00), and no significant differences were observed among treatments 1, 2, 3, and 5. The result of these study found that including 0.03g of Wild Lettuce Leaf Meal (WLM) in catfish diets resulted in the best growth performance and as well as a pro fertility agent which could be a future prospect in producing quality seeds at fish seeds multiplication centers thereby reducing the dependence on synthetic drugs.  

oocytes

sperm