Evaluation of tamoxifen citrate efficiency on sexual inversion of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of tamoxifen on sexual inversion of Nile tilapia larvae from two days of life, the experimental desing was compounded of five treatments and three replicates, and fish were fed diets with different amounts of tamoxifen: 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg kg-1 of feed. After 28 days of treatment, larvae were counted and transferred to water tanks of 500 liters and then which were fed with a diet containing 28% crude protein for more 60 days. After this period the fry were sexed by the “squash”. The survival 75.5 ± 5.74, 73 ± 4.76, 66 ± 11.19, 76.5 ± 4.12, 75 ± 3.46 and average percentage of male individuals 62.5 ± 5, 70 ± 8.1, 60 ± 8.2, 70 ± 0.0, 62.5 ± 9.5 for treatments 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg of tamoxifenkg-1 diet, respectively, showed no statistically significant differences (p<0,05). The number of gonads in each fish experienced a significant reduction in the treatments with 75 and 100 mg of tamoxifen (89.3 and 79.3 ± 0.527 ± 0.378) when compared with treatments 0, 25 and 50 mg of tamoxifen (98, 9 ± 1.0, 97.6 ± 1.0 and 94.5 ± 1.0, respectively), the histological structure of female gonads did not differ and ovaries in all treatments showed well-defined and oocytes at several stages of maturation.

Keywords

• Estrogen receptor; Monosex; Endocrine disruptor; Fish