Spermatogenesis in fishes

Pavan kumar
LECTURER IN FISHERIES
 Introduction:

• Fish reproductive organs include testes and ovaries.

• In most species, gonads are paired organs of similar size, which can be partially or
totally fused.

• The genital papilla is a small, fleshy tube behind the anus is some fishes, from which
the sperm or eggs are released.

• The sex of a fish can often be determined by the shape of its papilla.

Development of gonads

• Gonadal development in fish is of two types.

• In the gonochoristic species of fish although sexes are different, the gonads in both
sexes pass first through a female phase having follicular oocytes.

• In other fish species, gonads develop directly into ovary and tests.

• Vitamin A is known to affect gametogenesis.

Male genital system

• The male fish has a pair of testes and a pair of sperm ducts.

• There are no copulatory organs.

Spermatogenesis

• Spermatogenesis (spermiogenesis) occurs in testis, the gonad of the male.

• Milt comprises spermatozoa and the secretion of the sperm duct.

• Viability of sperms lies in their motility.

• For this purpose sperms carry a whip-like tail.

• It is only in the milt, after coming in contact with the secretion of the sperm duct, that
the immobile and inactive spermatozoa become active and mobile.

• Sperms are more viable in lower temperature and have a longer life inside body than
in water.
Testes

• The testes are long, smooth, pinkish organs about as long as the kidneys.

• They lie beneath the airbladder, suspended from the body wall by mesorchia.

• They produce spermatozoa (sperm).

• Most male fish have two testes of similar size.

• In the case of sharks, the testes on the right side is usually larger.

• The primitive jawless fish have only a single testis, located in the midline of the body.

• The testis of some teleost fish, the tunica albuginea, is covered in a tough
membranous shell that contains very fine coiled tubes called seminiferous tubules.

• The tubules are lined with a layer of cells (germ cells) that develop into sperm cells
(also known as spermatozoa or male gametes) from puberty into old age.

• The developing sperm travel through the seminiferous tubules to the rete testis located
in the mediastinum testis, to the efferent ducts, and then to the epididymis where
newly created cells mature.

• The sperm move into the vas deferens, and are eventually expelled through the urethra
and out of the urethral orifice through muscular contractions.
 • However, most fish do not possess seminiferous tubules.

• Instead, the sperm are produced in spherical structures called sperm ampullae.

• These are seasonal structures, releasing their contents during the breeding season, and
then being reabsorbed by the body.

• Before the next breeding season, new sperm ampullae begin to form and ripen.

Sperm duct

• A tube formed of peritoneum, hence closed space is associated with each testis.

• This tube is sperm duct.

• It is not a vas deferens.

• It communicates with the testis by several fine ductulus to receive the sperms.

• The sperm ducts join posteriorly and open out by the genital aperture latter between
the anus and the urinary aperture.