Confirmation of the efficiency of obtaining F1 hybrids Clarias gariepinus (Mikhailovskaya × Tamanskaya) according to growth performance, morphometric and production characteristics

African catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) is one of the promising objects of cultivation in freshwater commercial aquaculture in Russia. To date, two breeding achievements are registered in the list of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation: the Mikhailovskaya breed of African catfish and the Tamanskaya breed group, which have high production and adaptive characteristics. This paper considers the possibility of increasing the efficiency of fish production from African catfish by using hybrid groups of catfish obtained by crossing Mikhailovskaya and Tamanskaya group. Based on the results of the analysis of growth performance, morphometric and production characteristics, the superiority of the first-generation hybrid offspring in some indicators relative to the data of the original parental forms was revealed. Thus, crossing between the two lines showed an increase in the average growth rate of length and absolute weight gain of F1 hybrids compared to the average indicator of the parents (p < 0.05). In the analysis of the principal components of morphometric measurements and indices, the first component (PC1) was responsible for 25.6% of the total data distribution, the second component (PC2) for 16.3% of the shape variations among the samples, which indicates the phenomenon of heterosis in the obtained group due to the high variability of morphotypes in the offspring. According to the results of morphometric analysis, the superiority of the first-generation hybrids in terms of the length of the dorsal and anal fins (by 15.6 and 9.3%) was revealed compared to the Mikhailovskaya breed (p < 0.05). According to the production indices, F1 hybrids are more attractive for processing due to the shorter head length, greater length, height and volume of the body.