Induced Ovulation in Obscure Puffer Takifugu obscurus by Injections of LHRH-a

Obscure puffer Takifugu obscurus (Abedate) is one of the several species of Takifugu genus that migrate to the Yangtze River, China during the spawning season of February to May. It is a popular fish among locals and fetches a premium price owing to its high-quality meat. It is also a potential species for intensive culture as its natural populations are currently declining. There have been no published studies on the effects of GnRH-a injection on the obscure puffer. In this paper, we report the results of several obscure puffer ovulation trials conducted in 1995 and 1996. We demonstrated that ovulation could successfully be induced in obscure puffer collected from open systems during spawning period using a dosage of LHRH-a as low as 40 µg kg^–1 in two injections. We found no significant differences among 80, 60, 40 µg LHRH-a kg^–1 treatments in ovulation success, egg production, fertilization rate and hatch rate. Accordingly, we recommend the use of 40 µg LHRH-a kg^–1 as the optimal dosage from an economical point of view.