Effect of prepared diet and vitamins A, E and C supplementation on the reproductive performance of cage-reared bighead carp Aristichthys nobilis (Richardson)

Abstract

Twenty‐month‐old bighead carp, Aristichthys nobilis (Richardson), were fed prepared dry diets for 20 months in cages in Laguna de Bay, Philippines, to determine the effect on reproductive performance. The experimental diets were similar in composition except for the combinations of vitamins being tested. Diet 1 was supplemented with vitamins A, E and C; diets 2, 3 and 4 each lacked one of the supplementary vitamins; and diet 5 did not include any vitamin supplementation. Bighead carp that relied solely on natural food without a prepared diet served as a control. The total of six treatments each had two replicates. Results showed that the onset of gonad maturation was 2–3 months earlier in the fish that were fed the prepared diets regardless of vitamin supplementation, when compared with the fish that were fed natural food (control). Moreover, the prepared diets enhanced egg hatchability which was significantly higher in fish that were fed diet 1 (+ vitamins A, E and C, 80.5 ± 18.1%) and diet 3 (– vitamin E, 78.5 ± 1.1%) than in those fish that were fed natural food (control) (36.5 ± 31.3%). Mean number of 3‐day‐old larvae was highest in fish fed on diet 1 (34 525 ± 1732), followed closely by fish that were fed diet 3 (32 420 ± 3909). A low number of 3‐day‐old larvae was obtained from fish fed the natural diet (14 490 ± 4331) as well as in fish that were fed diet 2 (– vitamin A, 14 347 ± 4863), diet 4 (– vitamin C, 21 407 ± 5840) and diet 5 (– vitamin A, E and C, 12 191 ± 1439). Other criteria for reproduction such as relative fecundity, fertilization rate, and hatching rate did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) among treatments. The addition of vitamins also had no significant effects on weight gain of adult fish.

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“…Commercial production of this fish species has been rapidly increased and reached approximately 3.36 million tons in 2015 in China (Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China, 2016). In recent years, studies about bighead carp nutrition have been conducted, such as requirement of protein (Santiago & Reyes, 1991), vitamins (Santiago & Gonzal, 2000). However, information about its mineral requirements is scarce, especially its Ca and Ca/P requirement.…”

Effect of dietary vitamin E on the sperm quality of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus)

“…Relevant studies have been carried out on a number of fish species such as ayu (Takeuchi et al, 1981), goldfish (Kashani et al, 2012), carp (Taati et al, 2010), Nile tilapia (Gammanpila et al, 2007), black sea trout (Serezli et al, 2010), guppy (Mehrad and Sudagar, 2010), and zebrafish (Mehrad et al, 2012), which suggested that dietary Ve can improve the reproduction of broodstocks and survival rate of larvae. In female fish, it has been widely observed that dietary Ve could improve diverse reproductive performance such as the number of spawners (Areechon et al, 2003), ovarian growth rate (Watanabe and Takashima, 1977;Gupta et al, 1987;Roy and Mollah, 2009), vitellogenesis (Kanazawa, 1985;Santiago and Gonzal, 2000), and egg quality (Izquierdo et al, 2001;Kashani et al, 2012).…”

Application of the general stability index method to predict quality deterioration in bighead carp (Aristichthys nobilis) heads during storage at different temperatures

“…The bighead carp head is a product of high commercial value and increasing demand in China, due to its high proportion of bighead carp (approximately 34%), superior nutritional quality and delicious taste. Studies on bighead carp have been related to brine salting (Hong et al, 2012a,b), artificial breeding (Santiago and Gonzal, 2000) and microwavevacuum heating (Zhang et al, 2007). However, little information is available on quality prediction and the preservation of bighead carp heads during the refrigerated storage.…”