A Clement Ebenezer Henry, C Soundararajan, TMA Senthilkumar and P Jalantha
A total of 72 adult zebrafish, aged 5 to 6 months, consisting of 24 males and 48 females, were divided into four treatment groups. Each group comprised six breeding pairs with a sex ratio of 1 male to 2 females and was housed in separate holding tanks. The treatment groups were designated as follows: T1 - Control (no environmental enrichment), T2 - White PVC pipe tunnel, T3 - Multi-colored marbles, and T4 - Green and brown plastic plants. Each treatment group was replicated six times. In the evening, zebrafish pairs were moved to a 24- environment enriched breeding tank and left overnight. They remained in the breeder tanks until 9:00 am, at which point each spawning pair was returned to its respective holding tank without enrichment, and all eggs in the breeding tank were gathered and counted. These collected eggs were subsequently transferred to culture dishes, where they were kept at 28.5 °C for 6 days. After 6 days post-fertilization, all surviving fry were tallied and documented. According to the study findings, the average number of fertilized and unfertilized eggs of four treatment groups were as follows: T1 had 97.92±2.97 and 8.42±0.25, T2 had 106.17±2.95 and 8.38±0.25, T3 had 113.67±2.51 and 8.37±0.20, and T4 had 110.79±2.51 and 8.46±0.23, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between the control and treatment groups concerning fertilized eggs. At six days after fertilization, the survival percentages of zebrafish fry were as follows for each of the four treatment groups: T1: 82.38±2.56, T2: 84.78±0.57, T3: 86.44±0.33, and T4: 85.13±0.57. The percentage of surviving fry six days after fertilization showed a significant difference between the environment enrichment group with multicolored marbles (T3) and the control group (T1). According to the study's findings, zebrafish bred in enriched surroundings produce more eggs and have greater post-fertilization survival rates than those bred in unenriched habitats. In particular, compared to fish kept in other kinds of enriched habitats, zebrafish kept in tanks enriched with multicolored marbles produced more eggs and had better fry survivability rates up to six days after fertilization.
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