African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) production in captivity is still at the subsistent level in Nigeria largely due to its inability to reproduce naturally in captivity. In artificial breeding, rigorous operations which require high technical-know-how involving sacrifice of the male brood stock often result in colossal wastages. Thus, this study was aimed at using diluted dextrose saline to resuscitate African catfish spermatozoa in order to reduce the number of male brood stock to be sacrificed at a time as well as minimize milt wastages.

The harvested milt was evaluated microscopically for alive or dead spermatozoa cells, active or sluggish spermatozoa cells as well as spermatozoa cells concentration every quarter hour, after adding the diluted dextrose saline. Results indicated that alive sperm cells value was as high as 79.0% in control (T1) at 0 minute compared to 4.00% recorded at 15 minutes later and there were absolutely no more alive sperm cells at 30 minutes and beyond. Whereas, addition of diluted dextrose saline resuscitated the sperm cells in T2 by up to 50.0% motility at 1 hour and thereafter, all the sperm cells were no longer motile. Out of these resuscitated sperm cells, 52.5% were actively motile and 47.5% were sluggish.

Consequently, diluted dextrose saline could be used as a cryoprotectant in the preservation and storage of fish milt for short term duration in artificial breeding. This technique may be practicable in hatchery operations in order to boost African catfish production in Nigeria.