Comparative Study for Different Sources of Reproductive Stimulating Materials and Their Effects on the Reproductive Performance of African Catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822)

African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, is highly appreciated species for aquaculture. So, the present research was carried out to study the possibility of improving artificial reproduction of African catfish C. gariepinus brood stock by injection with some stimulating preparations. Females and males were divided into five treatments (T), each treatment had five females and two males, the females only were injected: T[sub 2], was injected with imported Pregnyl; T[sub 3], was injected imported Argent; T[sub 4], was injected with native carp pituitary gland and T[sub 5], was injected with native catfish pituitary gland; but T[sub 1], set as a control, without injection. Histological examination of ovaries revealed normal structure of ovarian lamellae among all treatments and various development stages of oogenesis were observed. So, it could be concluded that T[sub 3] followed by T[sub 2] and T[sub 5] were the best treatments for improving the reproductive performance of C. gariepinus concerning the significantly heaviest egg weight and highest AF, RF, serum FSH, LH, P4 than T[sub 1] and T[sub 4].