Frontiers in Marine Science (Nov 2015)
Insights on the Reproduction and Embryonic Development of Garra rufa (Cyprinidae)
Abstract
Garra rufa is a small freshwater benthopelagic cyprinid, originally from Southwest Asia, which has become economically relevant during the last decade. G. rufa is a worthy element to control algae growth in aquariophilia, but it is mostly known for its use in treatments of skin problems in spa’s and clinics. It was made an attempt to reproduce G. rufa in captivity, in order to respond to an increasing marketing demand for this fish, plus to get an insight on its reproductive biology and embryonic development. Groups of 5 G. rufa were inserted in twelve aquaria of 20 l, with an internal filter, aeration and placed in a controlled temperature room at 26ºC. A net placed 1.5 cm above the bottom prevented the fish from eating their own eggs. The fishes were fed three times per day and checked for the presence of eggs. The eggs were removed, placed on separate aquaria and photographed hourly at a Leica DM2000LED compound microscope, equipped with a Leica DMC2900 camera G. rufa showed almost no sexual dimorphism, except for the presence of tubercles on the snout of males, which appeared only during the reproduction period. Males were larger than females and executed high velocity persecutions after them. In a total of 28 postures, only 17 resulted in newly born fish. This was mostly due to fungal development around the eggs that caused the embryos to degenerate. There was a hatching success of 60%. The eggs showed no adhesive properties, being deposited on the bottom. The most prominent structures of the embryos were noticeable after: 3h - tail bud; 6h - optic primordium; 10h - heart beating; 15h - pectoral fins buds. They hatched between 24 to 48h and the larvae consumed the yolk sac in 48h.
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