Efficacy of Basella alba L. Extract on the Masculinization of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus Linnaeus, 1758) Using Immersion and Oral Administration Techniques

Abstract

The study evaluated the efficacy of Basella alba L. extract in inducing masculinization in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fry and eggs using oral administration and immersion techniques. Tilapia seedstocks were randomly assigned to negative control (no hormonal treatment), positive control (17α – methyltestosterone or 17α-MT), and B. alba extracts. Each treatment was administered via egg immersion, fry immersion, and oral administration, with the setup replicated three times. Yellow eggs were immersed for 96 hours in aqueous B. alba extract and 17α-MT hormone, while fish fry was immersed two hours weekly over 28 days. Oral administration involved feeding fish fry with feeds added with B. alba ethanol extract and 17α-MT. The study employed the standard acetocarmine squash technique of gonads to analyze the sex reversal percentage. The findings demonstrated that immersion of eggs and fry in Basella alba extract resulted in higher sex reversal percentages compared to orally treated fish fry, suggesting the effectiveness of both egg and fry immersion as masculinization techniques. Moreover, there were no significant differences in the percentage of males between groups treated with 17α-MT and those treated with B. alba extract, regardless of whether the treatment was administered orally or through immersion. These findings highlight the potential of Basella alba extract as a viable alternative to synthetic steroid hormones for achieving masculinization in Nile tilapia. Furthermore, egg and fry immersion can be considered an alternative technique to the traditional sex reversal method of feeding the fry with hormone-treated feeds.

Keywords

• Nile tilapia
• Basella alba
• Sex reversal
• Immersion
• 17α-MT

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