The Comparison of Individual Fecundity of Monopterus albus from Different Sources

Abstract:

Monopterus albus were widely distributed in the freshwater in China except for the Northwest and Southwest Plateau. M. albus were artificially propagated and cultured in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Currently the sources of parents of include the wild, the artificial culture, and artificial propagation. In this study we compared the fecundity of M. albus from different sources, and investigated their distribution, variation, and biological indexes of individual fecundity. We found that the absolute fecundities (F) of wild female, artificial cultured female and artificially propagated female were 181–729 eggs, 165–589 eggs, and 135–352 eggs respectively. The individual relative fecundities to weight (FW) of the three groups were 5.4–11.8 eggs/g, 3.5–9.3 eggs/g, and 4.96–8.55 eggs/g respectively. As for the individual relative fecundities to length (FL), the values were 5.8–17.2 eggs/mm, 4.85–15.00 eggs/mm, and 4.35–9.03 eggs/mm respectively. There were highly significant differences in FW and FL (P<0.01) between the three groups. Moreover, there were significant differences in F and FL, but not FW, between individuals with both different sources and body colors. F of all subjects and FL of the wild subjects were strongly correlated to the body weight and length. F, FL and FW of wild female M. albus were all higher than those of the artificial cultured and artificial propagated M. albus, and the former exhibited obvious advantage in fecundity. Our study will provide important guidance for the population construction and refined breeding of M. albus.