The morphology, dimensions, aberrations, and ultrastructure of channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) spermatozoa were studied. Spermatozoa of a wild catfish stock from Louisiana were compared to those of a domestic stock from Mississippi. The spermatozoon of channel catfish consists of a rounded dark head, a collar-dike midpiece, and a long flagellum. The average dimensions were: head length, 2.3 μm; midpiece length, 1.6 μm; midpiece width, 3.1 μm; and flagellum length, 94.9 μm. The flagellum had the classical (2.9 + 2) axoneme. On the average, 4.7% of the spermatozoa in the fish studied were biflagellar. Each flagellum arose from an individual centriolar complex. Domestic fish stock had a higher percentage of normal gametes compared to wild stock.
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Jaspers et al. (1976) studied this question.