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Pangas catfish can now give birth to Mekong giant catfish

By The Nation

 

 

There’s fresh hope for the survival of the endangered Mekong giant catfish after a team at Suranaree University of Technology found a way to make it not so giant.

 

They implanted breeder cells into the closely related but smaller Pangas catfish, and the spawn is a Mekong giant catfish that’s easier to breed in captivity because it’s now small enough to grow in controlled water environments.

 

The scientific sleight-of-hand involved will be showcased at the National Agricultural Fair, which the Nakhon Ratchasima school is hosting from January 10-19.

 

Surintorn Boonanuntanasarn, head of the School of Animal Production Technology at the university’s Institute of Agricultural Technology, said the Mekong giant catfish is threatened with extinction because its natural habitats have become so degraded.

 

Researchers elsewhere had had no success in preserving diversity among the species due to breeding limitations such as the sheer scale of the water containment area that such large fish require in their crucial first period of life, he said.

 

Suranaree collaborated with Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology in developing a technique to transplant Mekong catfish germ cells into Pangas catfish so the offspring can be raised in smaller spaces.

 

The Pangas is phylogenetically closely related to the Mekong but can be raised easily in a relatively small space.

 

Stem cells are extracted from an adult Mekong’s genitals and transplanted into a Pangas when it’s only four or five days old. The latter is then raised until it’s old enough to breed.

 

There’s one restriction: The Pangas catfish have to be albinos so that the white body contrasts with the black skin of the new-born Mekong catfish.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30380284

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-01-08

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[DrTuner]

Tiny giant. How apt for a Thai fish.

[ratcatcher]

Pangasius pangasius (Pangas Catfish) is widely sold in Thailand most farmed in Vietnam.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pangas+catfish&oq=pangas+catfish&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2j69i60l2.4374j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[rickudon]

Still not clear how the mekongs would require less water to live in, is this then going to be used to produce a hybrid?

 

Mekong fingerlings are available in many hatcheries.