A study was directed to assess probiotic-enrich dietary effect on the reproductive performance and larvae growth produced from the brood fish of Ompok pabda for 60 days. A total of 120 pairs of broodfish was used and fed with diets incorporating different levels of probiotic viz. 0 (served as a control), 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0g / kg diet under 4 treatments, i.e. PRO0, PRO1, PRO2 and PRO3 having 3 replications of each. After feeding trials, the brood fish were induced to breed with equal doses of ovaprim i.e. 0.5 and 1.2ml/kg body weight for male and female, respectively and subsequently larvae were produced. The experimental fish were observed for the success in reproductive performance like Gonado Somatic Index (GSI), fecundity, percentage of fertilization, percentage of hatching, percentage of deformed and formed larvae. GSI (10.24±0.94), fertilization rate (76.07±1.67) and percentage of hatching (78.65±4.17) found increased in PRO2 treatment. Likewise, in case of growth rate PRO2 also showed the best results compared to other treatments. Besides these, percentage of dead (21.71±2.6) and deformed larvae (1.85±1.5) were significantly lower in fish fed with the probiotic (0.8g) feed. Interestingly, PRO3 treatment, in some cases, gave the lowest result, in contrast to other treatments. So, it can be said that the use of higher concentration of the probiotic in diet did not always lead to significantly improved reproductive performance of spawners. Overall, the results demonstrated the beneficial effects of probiotics on the reproductive performance of this indigenous species, as the GSI, fecundity and larval survival were significantly enhanced by probiotic administration. So, it could be concluded that the probiotic is useful for enhancing fish growth, reproduction efficiency (especially for females) and development of fish gonad. So, probiotic can be used as broodstock feed additive in hatcheries which have a greater economic point of view.
