APZ 404

STRUCTURES AND FUNCTION OF THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM

Fish reproductive system is a complex system consisting of both internal and external organs. It

is responsible for the production and release of gametes for fertilization. The reproductive system

of fish is diverse and adapted to the different modes of reproduction exhibited by various species

of fish.

Structures of Fish Reproductive System: The reproductive system of fish is divided into two

main parts: the gonads and the accessory sex organs.

Gonads: The gonads are the primary organs responsible for gamete production. In males, the

gonads are testes, and in females, they are ovaries. The size and shape of the gonads vary with

the species of fish. In general, the gonads are located in the abdominal cavity of the fish, and

their size increases during the breeding season.

Accessory Sex Organs: Accessory sex organs are structures that aid in the transport and storage

of gametes. In males, accessory sex organs include the vas deferens, seminal vesicles, and

urogenital papilla. In females, accessory sex organs include the oviduct, uterus, and genital

papilla. These structures are used during the breeding season for fertilization and egg-laying.

Functions of Fish Reproductive System: The reproductive system of fish has two main

functions: gamete production and fertilization.

Gamete Production: The primary function of the reproductive system is to produce gametes. In

males, the testes produce sperm, while in females, the ovaries produce eggs. The size and

number of gametes produced vary with the species of fish. Some species produce a large number

of small gametes, while others produce a small number of large gametes.

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Fertilization: After gamete production, the next function of the reproductive system is

fertilization. Fertilization occurs when the male releases sperm into the water, and it comes into

contact with the eggs released by the female. The fertilized eggs then develop into embryos,

which eventually hatch into juvenile fish.

Types of Reproduction in Fishes

The methods of reproduction in fishes are varied, but most fishes lay a large number of small

eggs, fertilized and scattered outside of the body. The eggs of pelagic fishes usually remain

suspended in the open water. Many shore and freshwater fishes lay eggs on the bottom or among

plants. Some have adhesive eggs. The mortality of the young and especially of the eggs is very

high, and often only a few individuals grow to maturity out of hundreds, thousands, and in some

cases millions of eggs laid.

Males produce sperm, usually as a milky white substance called milt, in two (sometimes one)

testes within the body cavity. In bony fishes a sperm duct leads from each testis to a urogenital

opening behind the vent or anus. In sharks and rays and in cyclostomes the duct leads to a cloaca.

Sometimes the pelvic fins are modified to help transmit the milt to the eggs at the female's vent

or on the substrate where the female has placed them. Sometimes accessory organs are used to

fertilize females internally-for example, the claspers of many sharks and rays.

In the females the eggs are formed in two ovaries (sometimes only one) and pass from the

ovaries to the urogenital opening and to the outside. In some fishes the eggs are fertilized

internally but shed before development takes place. Members of about a dozen families each of

bony fishes (teleosts) and sharks bear live young. Many skates and rays also bear live young. In

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some bony fishes the eggs simply develop within the female, the young emerging when the eggs

hatch (ovoviviparous).

Others develop within the ovary and are nourished by ovarian tissues after hatching (viviparous).

There are also other methods utilized by fishes to nourish young within the female. In all live-

bearers the young are born at a relatively large size and are few in number. In one family of

primarily marine fishes, the surfperches from the Pacific coast of North America, Japan, and

Korea, the males of at least one species appear to be born sexually mature, although they are not

fully grown.

Some fishes are hermaphroditic, an individual producing both sperm and eggs, usually at

different stages of its life. Self-fertilization, however, is probably rare. Successful reproduction

and in many cases defence of the eggs and young is assured by rather stereotyped but often

elaborate courtship and parental behaviour, either by the male or the female or both. Some fishes

prepare nests by hollowing out depressions in the sand bottom (cichlids, for example), build

nests with plant materials and sticky threads excreted by the kidneys (sticklebacks), or blow a

cluster of mucus-covered bubbles at the water surface (gouramis). The eggs are laid in these

structures. Some varieties of cichlids and catfishes incubate eggs in their mouths.

Some fishes, such as salmon, undergo long migrations from the ocean and up large rivers to

spawn in gravel beds where they themselves hatched (anadromous fishes). Others undertake

shorter migrations from lakes into streams or in other ways enter for spawning habitats that they

do not ordinarily occupy.

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It is also responsible for producing hormones that influence the development of secondary sexual

characters such as specific sexual coloration e.g red tinge in Tilapia zilli and dark ones in

sarotherodon galileaus. Tilapia zilli is now called coptodon zilli and most fishes known by the

genus ‘Tilapia’ has changed to ‘Coptodon’.

In higher bony fishes, cystoamian conditions are found whereby the gonads are in coelomic sacs

except in trouts and salmon where lamprey conditions where egg rupture into the body cavity

and are exit through the urinary and rectal opening.

GAMETOGENESIS: Is the process of gamete formation in both male and female

spermatogenesis and Oogenesis is the process by which sperms are formed in testus of male

while eggs are formed in the ovary of the female.

Using kesteven method to study gonad development, they classified gonad into eight stages

Stages 1: This is virgin state/stage. The gonads are paired as strands laying within the visceral.

Usually, it is difficult to determine the sex except through microscopic examination.

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Stage 2: This involves gradual enlargement of the gonads. In some species the sexes are

distinguishable.

Stage 3: This involve further increase in the size of the gonad. Depending on the species, the

gonad may have different colours e.g. in cichlids, gonad colour in stage 1 is slightly pinkish and

retain it in stage 2 with strands of blood vessels attached to them while in stage 3, the ovary takes

up a greenish [pale] colour and the testis assumes cream colour.

Stage 4: Here, the gonads tend to move forward the midline. There’s no further increase in the

number of eggs is possible.

Stage 5: The gonads now occupy the entire visceral. A gentle pressure on the abdomen will

result in the release of one or two eggs or some drops of milt. The stage is the RIPE STAGE

Stage 6: This is the running or spawning stage

Stage 7: This is the spent stage. At this stage, few numbers of eggs remain within the ovarian

wall because not all mature gametes developed in the gonads are laid

Stage 8: At this stage, fresh development of the gonad starts again.

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During gametogenesis, sperm gain a whip like tail for mobility while female may or may not

gain dendrils or filament for attachment and also develop stickiness.

In order to ensure fertilization, each male fish produces a very large number of sperms, so tiny

that a million of them can be held in a droplet. The sperms are inactive until the secretion of the

duct is encountered [both make up the Milt] and immediately they became active and mobile

they soon die off unless eggs are attached/encountered

During Oogenesis, the surrounding epithelial cells provide the developing egg cells with

relatively large quantities of food materials in the form of yolk globules [protein] and fat in form

of oil droplet. When ready to leave the ovary, the egg cell has only a tender membrane.

As eggs of oviparous species pass through their oviducts, they go through glands that secrets

shell about them.

It is now possible to breed male and female offspring from different but related specie to form a

hybrid offspring.

FECUNDITY

Fecundity is the term used to describe the number of eggs produced per female per season. It

varies with

1. Size of the fish

2. Size of the egg of the specie i.e volume of ovary. Increase ovary=increase fecundity

3. Age of the fish

4. Conditions such as food availability, water temperature and season.

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It is related to the care accorded to the eggs. Fishes that produce large number of eggs shows

little or no care for the eggs and young e.g cod, which is a pelagic open water spawner, produces

as many as 9million eggs per female per season. It provides no care at all except to emit them in

the vicinity or in the company of the male depositing sperms. They are examples of scatter

spawners.

Heterotis niloticus on the other hand makes elaborate nests using grass fonds where the eggs are

laid and are protected against predators. The number of eggs laid are fewer, like thousand and are

examples of nest spawner. Cichlids are also nest spawners making nest in form of a simple

excavation in the soil.

Two groups of brooders are recognized

1. The guarders or substrate brooders: Coptodon zilli, guineensis e.t.c. eggs are laid in

excavators and the parents stay around to guard them against predators

2. Mouth brooders: sarotherodon spp, excavations are made when eggs are laid and

fertilized then either male or female parent or both scoop the egg into their mouth cavity

where they are brooded. Depending on the parent that brood them, mouth brooders could

be

a) Maternal mouth brooders e.g Sarotherodon niloticus

b) Paternal mouth brooders e.g Sarotherodon melanotheron

c) Biparental mouth brooders e.g Sarotherodon galileaus

Fishes that take care of their young produce fewer number of eggs than those that do not take

care of their young.

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The Gonado Somatic Index [GSI]: It is the proportion of eggs to body weight and it is usually

low in fish that care for their young one unlike those that bred in open waters. i.e mouth brooders

have fewer eggs than guarders

Fecundity can be estimated with gonads in stage 4, by a number of methods as [1] Direct

enumeration [2] Volumetric [3] Gravimetric methods

And are used for research in

a) Racial studies i.e. to know whether the specie occurring in a place is the same with that in

other places

b) Population dynamics and productivity: If the fecundity and mortality rate of a particular

specie is known, the population dynamics or potential of the specie and a given body can

be known

N.B

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