Abstract:
In Tilapia farming, early reproduction and slow growth of females pose
significant challenges. Various methods exist for achieving this, aiming to
address the aforementioned constraints in Tilapia farming by ensuring a
predominance of faster-growing male fish. The research aimed to enhance
sex reversal efficiency in Tilapia by elevating hormone concentration and
altering feeding duration. Three-day-old Tilapia fry was fed 17-αmethyltestosterone mixed feed at 90mg/kg and 120mg/kg concentrations for
20 and 30 days. Four treatments were implemented, each with three
replicates. Sex reversal percentages and growth parameters were assessed
and compared using ANOVA with Minitab Version 18.0, providing insights
into optimizing hormonal sex reversal techniques for Tilapia farming. The
experiment of 120mg/kg feed fed for 30 days produced significantly higher
males (94.99±1.67%, p<0.05, ANOVA) and showed significantly lower
growth rates (28.42±0.18g weight and 9.67±0.01 cm total length at 90 days
of age) than other treatments. Therefore, by considering the growth
parameters (32.37±0.01g weight, 11.90±0.03cm total length at 90 days of
age) and sex reversal efficiencies (93.33±0.01%,) the experiment of
120mg/kg feed fed 20 days was selected as the best concentration for sex
reversal in Tilapia. Although this experiment did not achieve complete sex
reversal, it improved the sex reversal percentages compared to past studies.
Also, feeding only for 20 days with 120mg/kg reduces the environmental
impacts of hormone accumulation in the environment compared to 30 days
of feeding which is currently in use.
