Finfish Breeding and Hatchery Management

Unit 3 - Breeding of major carps

3.2.2. Sympathetic breeding

• Sympathetic breeding refers to the breeding of uninjected fish at the sympathy of injected fish.
• This is common in bundh breeding, wherein, only 10-20 brooders are injected with either pituitary extract or synthetic spawning agent and the rest are not injected.
• After an interval of about 8-10 hours, the injected brooders first start spawning and subsequently the uninjected brooders are also stimulated to spawn, thereby leading to the complete spawning of all the brooders.
• Sympathetic spawning leads to lesser use of hormone and reduced handling of brooders.
• By this method, natural spawning of both grass carp and silver carp is possible in a dry bundh of Bankura District where they spawned naturally, without stripping.
• Some consider sympathetic breeding as one of the reliable means of mass breeding of Chinese carps to meet the increasing demand of their seed.