Short‐term storage of sperm in common carp from laboratory research to commercial production—A review

Abstract Short‐term storage of fish sperm is a simple and cost‐effective process in fishery research from basic to applied perspectives. It has been used to elucidate and evaluate gamete biology and quality, perform in vitro fertilization, develop sperm cryopreservation. Sperm short‐term storage is used in selective breeding, hatchery production and advanced molecular investigations such as disease detection of commercial species in aquaculture as well as biological conservation of threatened or endangered fishes. Several studies have demonstrated that the quality of common carp Cyprinus carpio sperm can be influenced by their health, age, nutritional status, the dose of administered hormone and environmental factors. When sperm is stored for short time, spermatozoa motility and viability as key determinants of fertility affected by storage parameters including the composition of natural seminal plasma, duration of exposure, temperature, dilution ratio if the extender is used, and additives in addition to the factors that affect sperm quality such as the age of male and spawning period. This is due to damage to the integrity of the plasma membrane, production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) causing oxidative stress and epigenetic modification. This review highlights and investigates the recent data regarding worldwide aquaculture production, short‐term storage of common carp sperm and the effects of storage on spermatozoa function with consideration to factors that affect sperm quality during storage. It also highlights the knowledge gap that must be filled in the future for designing methods from laboratory into practical applications of short‐term storage in the breeding program of common carp.