Morphology Of The Digestive Tract Of The Farmed Nile Tilapia Fish Orechromis NILOTICUS (Linnaeus, 1758) From Mouau Farm:- Ahaotu Ifunanya J

ABSTRACT sourced from Michael Okpara University of haematoxylin and eosin. Pharyngeal pad was sliced into small pieces, decalcified and carried out using Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS), Alcian blue (AB) and a trichrome test stain, a combination of AB and PAS procedures. Sections were examined with a light microscope and photographed with a NOVEL DIGITAL microscope. Data were analyzed statistically using analysis of variance. Duncan’s multiple range test was.used to separate variant means descriptively. Grossly, the oral surfaces of the palatine and mandibular rostral ends of the fish contained attached to the floor of the oropharyngeal cavity. The oesophagus connected the oropharyngeal cavity to the stomach. The stomach is U-shaped with constrictions separating it from the intestine. The proximal intestinal wall was thick and continuous with coiled middle and distal intestine. The relative intestinal length ofthe adult was not significant. Histologically, the tunica mucosa of oropharynx, tongue, pharyngeal pad, and oesophagus cells, taste buds. The lamina propria of the oesophagus contained dense collagen connective tissue. Tunica muscularis was composed of skeletal muscle fibres arranged in an inner longitudinal and outer circular layer. The oesophagus, the circularly oriented muscle fibres 1 1oesophagus, stomach, intestine, rectum and anus buffered formalin, and they were embedded in paraffin wax, sectioned and stained with roughed grinding plates with degree of roughness that increases with age. The tongue was similarly processed. The carbohydrate histochemistry was were lined by stratified epithelium. The adult pharyngeal pad contained teeth and mucous Twenty-three (23) Nile tilapia adult fishes were agriculture Umudike Farm Umuahia, Abia State ofNigeria, were used for the study. The fish were weighed; the standard and total body lengths were measured. The fish were euthanized with chloroform. The digestive tracts were dissected out and the intestinal lengths measured. The relative intestinal length was also determined. Slices of upper lip and lower lip, tongue, were excised and fixed in 10% Neutra