Use of Fish Pituitaries to Induce Spawning in Channel Catfish

Kermit E. Sneed · Howard Paul Clemens

Jan. 1960 · U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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Seventy-two pairs of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus were induced to spawn in glass aquaria by injecting fish pituitary into the females. Control of peritoneal lesions, infections, and adhesions, was anticipated by including 10,000 unites of crystalline penicillin-G with each injection. Spawning was induced by injecting acetone-dried pituitaries from carp, buffalofish, flathead and channel catfish, and gar. Pituitaries from these various species differed little, regardless of time of collection. The amount of pituitary material required to induce spawning varied from 3 to 32 milligrams per pound of fish weight, given in from 1 to 28 injections, with an average of 3. Most females required 3 injections at 2 milligrams per pound of body weight every 24 hours. The period of time from the last injection to spawning varied from 2 1/2 hours to 72 hours, but averaged 16 to 24 hours.