Production of a high percentage of male offspring with 17a-éthynylestradiol sex-reversed Oreochromis aureus. II. Comparative reproductive biology of females and F2 pseudofemales and large scale production of male progeny.

In Oreochromis aureus, the use of pseudofemale spawners (sex-reversed male with a female phenotype) is an alternative technique fort producing monosex genetically male tilapias offspring. This study compared the reproductive capacities of F2 pseudofemales and females and evaluated the possibilities of applying this process of high percentage of male production on a large scale in earthen ponds. The percentage of non-spawning pseudofemales F2 (40%) is high in comparison to females (20%). On average females spawned three times and pseudofemales spawned once and a significant variation was observed in the frequency of spawning (P< 0,1). The pseudofemales presented typical gonads and relative fecundity similar (P> 0.05) to that of females (respectively 1668 ±1445 and 1643 ± 1070 eggs/kg per spawning). The GSI of spawning females and pseudofemales was respectively 3.7 ± 1,7% and 4.4 ± 2,2 % (P> 0,05). The sex ratio of progeny of pseudofemales deviated significantly (P<0,01) in favour of males (90,7 to 91,0 %) compared to the results observed with normal females (52,0 to 57,0 %). The male percentage obtained could result from polyfactorial sex determination in O. aureus. The mean fry production with pseudofemales per m2/day was 35 % lower (10.0) with the pseudofemales than with the normal females (15.4). This process gives less satisfactory results in comparison with classical techniques, but it does provide a sufficient fry production rate and male percentage, especially in intensive culture.