Caracterização seminal de carás (Geophagus brasiliensis - Cichlidae) induzidos artificialmente

A study was conducted with the objective of evaluating the seminal characteristics of the Geophagus brasiliensis kept in captivity with and without hormonal induction. For that, 26 males were distributed among the following treatments: nine males without hormonal induction; nine males with hormonal induction of carp hipophysis extract (HC) and eight males with hormonal induction by human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). The parameters seminal volume, semen color, sperm motility, sperm vigor, sperm latency time, sperm concentration and sperm viability were evaluated for the seminal characterization of males of different treatments. The data were submitted to analysis of variance with 95% confidence. The semen color was classified as milky white. Mean values for motility, vigor and sperm concentrations were: 94.44%, 78.75% and 63.88%; 4.44, 4.00 and 3.55; 5.10, 5.00 and 5.72 x 10 mL, for the non-induction, HCG and HC treatments, respectively. The sperm latency time ranged from 143.4 to 988.2 seconds and the sperm viability was 100% for all treatments. Analysis of variance did not show a significant difference between the effects of the different treatments on the evaluated parameters. Although the results demonstrated the artificial induction of males during the reproductive period is not necessary, other artificial reproduction protocols should be tested for G. brasiliensis envisioning the use of the specie commercially in aquaculture.