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The quality of fish gametes, both male and female, are determined by several factors (age, management, feeding, chemical and physical factors, water quality, etc.) that have an impact on the survivability of embryos, larvae and/or fry in the short or long term. One of the most important factors is gamete ageing, especially for those species that are unable to spawn naturally in hatcheries. The chemical and physical factors in hatcheries and the nutrition that they provide can significantly alter harvest quality, especially from females; as a rule, males are more tolerant of stress conditions produced by inadequate feeding, management and/or poor water conditions. The stress produced on broodstock by inadequate conditions in hatcheries can produce adverse effects on gamete quality, survival rates, and the embryonic eggs after hatching.

This study determines the reproductive patterns of puye (Galaxias maculatus) under culture conditions. A population of 567 wild fish was caught in the Cautín River, Chile, and held in captivity for four years. Mortality, sex ratio, gonadosomatic index (GSI), sexual maturity stages, spawning period, type and frequency of spawning, and fecundity were measured. The fish grew throughout the experimental period, with the fastest rate during the first half of the first year of life. The highest mortality occurred during the first three months of the experiment and during the spawning season. The sex ratio was almost 1:1 (female:male). First sexual maturity was reached at one year of age, with an average weight of 0.85 ± 0.01 g, total length of 4.85 ± 0.16 cm, and condition factor 0.0074. The highest GSI in both females (12.14 ± 0.74) and males (17.7 ± 2.70) was recorded in August. Nevertheless, the females spawned 3 to 10 times between September and February, with the highest reproductive peak between September and October. The number of embryos per female per day varied from 1 to 429, while the total number of embryos per female during the entire season evaluated varied from 163 to 1044. There was a high correlation (r = 0.82) between absolute fecundity and body weight. Although further studies are needed in this field, these results are basic for establishing future reproductive programs in captivity as a strategy for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture management.

Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns, 1842), is a gourmet fish of great commercial importance with overexploited fisheries. So, studies of its biology are essential in order to develop a technology for its cultivation (galaxiculture), which is at a pilot stage. The goals of this work are: 1) to provide a synthesis of the literature information on the biology of the species, and 2) to identify the lack of scientific knowledge and critical points for the development of a technology for mass commercial culture. G. maculatus is a small carnivorous fish with euryhaline populations differentiated between diadromic and freshwater. Diadromic populations spawn in the estuaries, and then the larvae migrates to the sea, returning aged 6 months and metamorphosing into adults. Studies of their systematic, populations and larvae stage in Chilean waters are scarce, but studies on feeding, reproduction and diseases are more numerous. One year old females lay about 1,200 adhesive eggs and an important number of them die after the first spawning (40%). G. maculatus has rapid growth (1.1% day-1) and a high metabolism, with an average life of 2 years. They can be cultivated in captivity, spawn and incubate their eggs to obtain larvae; adults eat salmon starter pellets and grow in tanks. The ciliate protozoa Ichtyophthirius multifilis (ich) produces high mortality in larvae and adults in confinement; mortality can be controlled with salt bath. The problems to be solved by research for future commercial fish farming are: recognising and selecting suitable populations for cultivation; increasing the number of eggs spawned by females; develop suitable diets for larvae and broodstock; and controlling ectoparasitic diseases. The critical point is achieving mass production by improving the techniques of reproduction and larviculture.

Ecological interactions among multiple invaders can aggravate their effects on invaded systems. Many salmonids including rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and Chinook salmon O. tshawytscha have established naturalized populations and co-occur in rivers worldwide. Predation of eggs and juveniles has been well documented among salmonids in their native range in the Northern Hemisphere. It has been unclear to what extent these interactions exist in invaded rivers of the Patagonia. Here, we report and quantify rainbow trout predation of Chinook salmon eggs in the Cisnes River Basin, southern Chile. We used hook and line angling to sample rainbow trout (n = 80) around salmon spawning areas before, during, and after the spawning season of Chinook salmon. Stomach contents obtained during two consecutive years show consistent evidence that rainbow trout opportunistically prey on Chinook salmon eggs. Salmon eggs occurred in 75 and 50% of the trout stomachs analyzed in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The number of salmon eggs (mean ± SD) per trout stomach ranged between 17.95 ± 24.29 in 2019 and 7.45 ± 12.90 in 2020. We assumed that consumed eggs were primarily non-viable or would have had low probabilities of survival suggesting a synergistic interaction between rainbow trout and Chinook salmon. Our findings provide baseline information that contribute to demographic studies and the management of invasive salmonids in rivers of this region and elsewhere.

The chorion is the primary envelop that protects the fish embryo against mechanical actions, pathogens, and abrupt changes in physical and chemicals conditions of the incubation medium. During embryo development, chorion alterations are not rare, but the occurrence of these is scarcely reported. Increased frequency of chorion alterations can result in increased embryo mortality and thus decreased reproductive performance and losses for fish farms. In this study, we characterize different chorion alterations observed in samples collected over 14 years from 12 salmon and trout farms located in the region of La Araucanía in southern Chile, which sent live eyed-stage embryos (‘eyed-eggs’) for quality analysis to our laboratory. We found soft chorion as the most common alteration observed, being present in the whole 14-year series analyzed in Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) and affecting up to 35.0% of the samples examined in a year. This alteration also affected up to 20.0 and 5.7% of Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) samples analyzed in a year, respectively. We also found an increase of other chorion alterations, including perforated and white-spotted chorion in Atlantic and Coho Salmon, in the last 8 years. Among the three species, Rainbow Trout exhibited fewer chorion alterations. As the embryonated eggs analyzed here were obtained from broodstocks maintained under standard industrial conditions, these alterations might be linked to changes in environmental conditions affecting the incubation water that need to be further investigated.

In fish feeding studies, stomach related parameters are mainly measured in order to have biometric relationships. To determine those parameters a direct and straightforward method for measuring real maximum stomach volume in fish based on Archimedes' principle was tested and compared against a traditional method. The new method is based on the measure of the real maximum stomach volume when fish are fed ad libitum. By contrast, the traditional method measures the forced expanded capacity of the stomach under an arbitrarily assigned hydraulic pressure head of a 50 cm column of water. The two methods were assayed in juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, and the results displayed significant different stomach volume and related indices. The best relationships for potential regression were obtained using the Archimedes' principle method, being between fish weight and stomach volume ([R.sup.2] = 0.68), and stomach content and stomach volume ([R.sup.2] = 0.95). These results indicate that the measurement of real maximum stomach volume in fish using the Archimedes' principle method could be a useful method of estimation of how much stomach can expand; this can be a suitable tool to improve fish feeding research by regulating the amount of feed that can be ingested by animals.

One of the most astonishing examples of chromatin remodelling occurs during the maturation of male germ cells, where changes in protein structure, as well as chromatin compaction, take place. During the post-meiotic formation of sperm (spermiogenesis), chromatin appears super-condensed, and transcriptionally inactive, allowing for a more hydrodynamic sperm head, and preventing physical and chemical damage to DNA. DNA is closely condensed in the mature sperm nucleus through its linkage with sperm-specific nuclear proteins called sperm nuclear basic proteins, clustered in three categories: histones, protamines and protamine-like proteins. Fish represent a unique group of vertebrates, including species with specific proteins from each type, such as Sparus aurata, Mullus surmuletus, Dicentrarchus labrax, and Scyliorhinus canicula, which display histones, protamine-like proteins, protamines, and keratinous protamines, respectively. Phylogenetically, these proteins are evolutionarily related, presenting a sporadic and non-random distribution, as a result of vertical evolution, where only histones would be found in more primitive species, and protamines would be restricted to those species located at the uppermost branches of the phylogenetic tree. The relative frequency of this transition is almost insignificant during the differentiation of genera, and species, and very small amongst different families, but, very noticeable amongst different orders. Thus, the aim of this study is to gather the existing background related to sperm nuclear basic proteins in fish, showing a general perspective of the state of the art about diversity, and nuclear reorganization of sperm chromatin during spermiogenesis, and the evolution and phylogenetic distribution of these proteins in fish sperm.

The present investigation determined how different antioxidants incorporated into the sperm diluent for cold storage of semen affected sperm motility and spermatozoan fertility capabilities of the rainbow trout. For the evaluations, fresh semen (C) and semen that had been stored without diluents (T1) were used as control groups. The diluents were prepared using a base of UCT diluents (T2), adding grape polyphenol (0.1 g 100 [mL.sup.-1]) (T3), trolox C (0.1 g 100 [mL.sup.-1]) (T4), polyphenol (0.1 g 100 [mL.sup.-1]) plus trolox (0.1 g 100 [mL.sup.-1]) (T5), and vitamin C (0.018 g 100 [mL.sup.-1]) (T6). The incorporation of t level 5 sperm motility. After seven days of storage, only T3 and T6 dropped to level 4 sperm motility. The duration of flagellate activity on this day was maximal for T3 with 36.87 ± 0.51 s and minimal for T6 with 29.78 ± 0.52 s. On day seven, fertility was maintained with no statistically significant differences between the control and T2 (92.80 ± 0.62%), T3 (83.66 ± 2.52%), T4 (90.46 ± 1.60%), T5 (83.57 ± 2.75%), and T6 (83.57 ± 2.30%). By days 10 and 17 of storage, the fertility of T1 was zero and that t

There is a lack of information on the morphology of the first blastomeres that could be used as a diagnostic tool for the first stages of embryonic development for Coho salmon. The purpose of this investigation, therefore, was to characterize morphometrically the first blastomeres of Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). In total, 660 embryonic discs from a pool of eggs that had been fertilized and incubated at 5°C and after 19 h of incubation were extracted and photographed. Of these, 20 microphotographs of blastodiscs of normal appearance were analyzed morphologically (control blastodiscs: CB) and 100 random microphotographs from the whole group were classified as either symmetrical or asymmetrical according to their morphology and then compared with the CB. The length and width of each blastomere and the proportions of length and width were measured to determine symmetry in the embryos at the 4-cell stage. Seven categories were created to characterize the blastomeres: 38% normal (G1); 26% unequal (G2); 10% ‘pie-shaped’ (G3); 10% amorphous (G4); 8% with three equal and one unequal blastomere (G5); 6% ‘clover-shaped’ blastomeres (G7), and 3% with inclusions. The mean of the proportions of lengths and widths of the groups of blastomeres that were measured was 0.87 ± 0.08 and 0.85 ± 0.07, respectively. The morphometric results that were obtained in this investigation are compared with the results observed by other authors for teleostei and are discussed.

Studies about nuclear DNA content in the genus Genypterus are scarce, and the present study gives the first estimate of nuclear DNA content of Genypterus chilensis, with a value of 2C= 1.0 + 0.06 pg, value close to that obtained for other Ophidiidae species wich range between 1.2 and 1.68 pg.