Ovaprim - Induced Hormone Injections

[Zebra Pleco]

Hi all, been speaking to a few people I know from Germany, who breed plecs on a large scale. They are all using Ovaprim, an injection cocktail full of hormones and dopamine etc.

Surely this is ethically wrong, is there any downsides to this, are the fry effected. I did a bit of googling, and the stuff is used everywhere for carp and salmon farms etc, but on delicate plecs, this has to be a gamble.

Has anyone on here had an experience with hormone injection of fish, or is there a safer alternative.

Personally I like the challange of doing it the hard way, letting nature take care, but as money is getting tight, the costs of living are going up, everyone is always on the lookup for a shortcut.

Any advice from the pro's on here about fish hormones etc.



Ovaprim

• Induce maturation within a spawning season
• Advance spawning date
• Coordinate and synchronize spawning times
• Increase milt production including increased sperm count
• Induce maturation in difficult species
• Induce spawning in the most important and difficult to spawn species

Link to ovaprim website: http://www.syndel.com/Product.aspx?CategoryId=20&ProductId=78

 

[Joby]

I'm with you, let it happen naturally :yes:

 

[macvsog23]

.
And how do you think we get all the cheap food?

The same way.
Our wonderful natural farmers have been adding this sort of clap to our food for the last 25 years. Food in the west is now so cheap it is almost free but it is very deadly.
As for the use in breeding non food fish yes its disgusting, yes it’s dangerous but after all are these people not in the business of making money?

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

i've had to inject fish with antibiotics before... so the actual process of sticking needle into the fish isnt a big drama when you know how....

hmmmm using hormones to spawn plecs??? well the germans are usually always at the foremost of anything to increase quantity or size of their yield so it doesnt surprise me...

red tail cats and arrowanas are all bred this way in fish farms....
if you were waiting to spawn some red tail cats naturally i think you'd be waiting a long long time.....

IMO if this was used solely on already mature adult fish that just arent breeding or havent been bred in captivity before then i'd be prepared to give it a go.... but using it on fish that are known to spawn quite readily seems a waste of time for me...

besides the money factor it would be nice for a lot more people to own the rarer plecs.... there are some plecs i'd love but i know i'll prob never own as there availability is almost zero...

but inducing young fish into adults to breed is a NO NO for me....

 

[ccole]

exactly the reason i grow my own and am a veggie..... I think it is totally wrong but ethics and money clash in life, always have. In the end it is nature that pays first and us that will pay for it in the end with god knows what ways... THE END OF THE WORLD I TELL YOU THE END OF THE WORLD!

 

[Zebra Pleco]

My problem is most of my fish have come from Germany, apart from my most recent purchases this year, and others from Denmark, if these fish were every injected in the past, will it affect them now.

Will they still breed, if they have been injected previously or am I wasting my time trying.

If they do breed, will I have mutant fry? Does the hormone disappear after a certain amount of time.

 

[bigbird]

agree partially with both sides. Would be a possibility for rarer plecs, but then we are playing with nature and me myself also believe in let it happen naturally. Lets face it as said inthis thread, all food forms nowadays are sprayed, injected or gased some where down the track. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

My problem is most of my fish have come from Germany, apart from my most recent purchases this year, and others from Denmark, if these fish were every injected in the past, will it affect them now.

Will they still breed, if they have been injected previously or am I wasting my time trying.

If they do breed, will I have mutant fry? Does the hormone disappear after a certain amount of time.

if you want to sterilize your plecs you can use a medication thats readily available on the market... you use it at about 10 times recommended dose apparently.... if it doesnt kill them it sterilizes them....

i have always thought the germans were doing this to a lot of exported stuff anyway..... lets hope im wrong!!! :wb: