Effects of Tribulus terrestris and Ferula communis extracts on growth and gonad histology of red zebra cichlid Maylandia estherae (Konings, 1995)

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary supplementation of plant extracts from Tribulus terrestris and Ferula communis on gonad histology of the red zebra cichlid Maylandia estherae (Konings, 1995). The fish were fed dietary additions of 0.2% T. terrestris (TT); 0.2% F. communis (FC) and F. communis 0.1% + T. terrestris 0.1% (FC+TT) along with a control diet, each treatment in triplicates. A total of 36 females with a mean weight of 3.54 g and 36 males with an average weight of 3.54 g were randomly stocked (3♀:3♂) in 12 aquaria. The fish were fed ad libitum with treatment diets for 90 days. At the end of the experiment, the final weight, weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR) and survival rate of fish fed with diets supplemented with FC and TT showed no significant differences from the fish fed the control diet. Histological examination revealed increase in number of mature oocytes in FC and TT groups. However, number of mature oocytes decreased in FC+TT group. The seminiferous lobules in FC and TT groups were found to be comparatively larger with much more spermatozoa compared to the control groups. Spermatozoa decreased in FC+TT group but increased spermatids were seen in seminiferous tubules. Degenerative changes were not seen in any group. The findings indicated that FC and TT extracts added to the diets of fishes helped to improve reproductive performance and FC addition may be more effective for increased ovarian and testicular capacity.

Keywords: Ferula communis, Fish, Histology, Reproductive performance, Tribulus terrestris