Journal of Oceanography and Marine Research
Open Access

Abstract

Methyl Farnesoate Induced Ovarian Maturation in Freshwater Prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

Hemalatha M, Parameswari K, Kishori B, Reddy BS and Reddy PR

The present study focused to elucidate the effect of methyl farnesoate (MF) on ovarian development and maturation in the freshwater giant prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Control, eyestalk ablated (ESX) and MF injected prawns were maintained during the experimentation and observed significant (p<0.001) increase in the mean ovarian index, oocyte diameter and ovarian vitellogenin levels in both eyestalk ablated and methyl farnesoate administered prawns when compared with controls. All the MF injected animals are in vitellogenic stage III, whereas ESX animals were showed all the reproductive stages at 30th day of experiment. The levels of protein and lipid in the ovary were also measured. The total protein and lipid content levels were also significantly increased in eyestalk ablated (145.07% and 72.05% respectively) and MF injected animals (315.21% and 118.39% respectively) than the controls. The outcome of the present study clearly suggests that MF stimulates the reproduction in female prawns than the conventional ESX method.