The emergence of diseases and mortalities in aquaculture and development of antibiotics resistance in aquatic microbes, has renewed a great interest towards alternative methods of prevention and control of diseases. Nanoparticles have enormous potential in controlling human and animal pathogens and have scope of application in aquaculture. The present investigation was carried out to find out suitable nanoparticles having antimicrobial effect against aquatic microbes. Different commercial as well as laboratory synthesized metal and metal oxide nanoparticles were screened for their antimicrobial activities against a wide range of bacterial and fungal agents including certain freshwater cyanobacteria. Among different nanoparticles, synthesized copper oxide (CuO), zinc oxide (ZnO), silver (Ag) and silver doped titanium dioxide (Ag-TiO2) showed broad spectrum antibacterial activity. On the contrary, nanoparticles like Zn and ZnO showed antifungal activity against fungi like Penicillium and Mucor species. Since CuO, ZnO and Ag nanoparticles showed higher antimicrobial activity, they may be explored for aquaculture use.

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An experiment was conducted to compare the effects of iron oxide nanoparticles (T 1 ) and ferrous sulfate (T 2 ) on Indian major carp, Labeo rohita H. There were significant differences (P \ 0.05) in the final weight of T 1 and T 2 compared with the control. Survival rates were not affected by the dietary treatments. Fish fed a basal diet (control) showed lower (P \ 0.05) iron content in muscle compared to T 1 and T 2 . Furthermore, the highest value (P \ 0.05) of iron content was observed in T 1 . In addition, RBCs and hemoglobin levels were significantly higher in T 1 as compared to other treated groups. Different innate immune parameters such as respiratory burst activity, bactericidal activity and myeloperoxidase activity were higher in nano-Fe-treated diet (T 1 ) as compared to other iron source (T 2 ) and control in 30 days post-feeding. Moreover, nano-Fe appeared to be more effective (P \ 0.05) than ferrous sulfate in increasing muscle iron and hemoglobin contents. Dietary administration of nanoFe did not cause any oxidative damage, but improved antioxidant enzymatic activities (SOD and GSH level) irrespective of different iron sources in the basal diet.

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