Effects of dietary vitamin E and astaxanthin on growth, skin colour and antioxidative capacity of large yellow croaker Larimichthys crocea

Abstract

A 10‐week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary vitamin E and astaxanthin on growth performance, skin colour and antioxidative capacity of large yellow croaker Larimichthys crocea. Six practical diets were formulated in a 2 × 3 factorial design to supplement with two levels of astaxanthin (25 and 50 mg/kg) and three levels of vitamin E (0, 120 and 800 mg/kg). The results showed that both the highest final body weight and specific growth rate were found in fish fed diets with 120 mg/kg vitamin E supplementation. No significant differences were found in survival rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio among all the treatments (p > .05). Skin lightness (L*) was not significantly affected by dietary treatments (p > .05). Ventral skin redness (a*) of fish fed diet with 25 mg/kg astaxanthin and 0 mg/kg vitamin E supplementation was significantly lower than that of fish fed with other diets. Yellowness (b*) and carotenoid contents both in the dorsal and in the ventral skin were found to be significantly increased with increasing dietary astaxanthin or vitamin E (p < .05), but no significant interactions were found (p > .05). The vitamin E content in liver reflected the dietary vitamin E content. Level of vitamin E content in fish fed diets with 800 mg/kg vitamin E supplementation was significantly higher than that in fish fed with the other diets (p < .05). Liver superoxide dismutase activity and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance levels were found to be decreased with increasing dietary astaxanthin and vitamin E levels, respectively. Levels of reduced glutathione in the liver were found to be increased with increasing dietary vitamin E contents. The total antioxidative capacity in the liver was found to be decreased with increasing dietary vitamin E or astaxanthin contents. In conclusion, adequate dietary vitamin E can improve the growth of large yellow croaker, and the supplementation of astaxanthin and vitamin E benefited the skin coloration and antioxidative capacity of large yellow croaker.

Untitled

“…Meanwhile, the liver TBARs content was also significantly decreased in fish fed with higher dietary carotenoids than in those fed with lower ones. Similar results were found in olive flounder (Pham et al, 2014) and large yellow croaker, Larimichthys crocea (Yi et al, 2018), in which fish fed the carotenoid diets had lower TBARs content compared to that fed the control diet.…”

Natural astaxanthin extracted from shrimp waste for pigment improvement in the Orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula

“…The results were similar for other species such as rainbow trout with TA B L E 4 Total carotenoid content (mg kg −1 ) in the whole body, skin and muscle of Orange clownfish fed the experimental diets for 8 weeks Adonis aestivalis extract rich in astaxanthin (Zhang et al, 2020); large yellow croaker Larimichthys crocea (Yi et al, 2018); red porgy (Pagrus pagrus; Kalinowski et al, 2005); juvenile olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus (Pham et al, 2014); Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid dottyback; Jiang et al, 2019); and guppy fish (Poecilia reticulata; Mirzaee et al, 2012). However, in a study conducted by Ebeneezar et al ( 2020), specific growth rates and weight gain (%) varied significantly (p < 0.05) among all the treatments and the highest values of SGR, WG were observed in the groups where paprika and a mixture of paprika, turmeric and chlorophyll oleoresins were fed to A. ocellaris.…”

“…Improvements were found not only in A. ocellaris, astaxanthin also improved the appearance of several other species. For the large yellow croaker Larimichthys crocea, a value of a* was only higher with an astaxanthin of 50 μg g −1 diet, while it was lower with the low astaxanthin diet (Yi et al, 2018).…”

“…Studies have found that both natural and synthetic pigments can be applied to improve the appearance of several fish species (Gouveia & Rema, 2005;Pham et al, 2014;Yi et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2020).…”

“…This pigment naturally exists in three forms: monoester, diester and free astaxanthin, and is comprised of 95% esterified molecules (Capelli et al, 2013). It has been found that the supplementation of carotenoids can not only improve fish pigmentation, but can also influence other important biological functions, such as anti‐oxidation, enhanced immunity, stress resistance, reproduction and resistance to bacterial and fungal diseases (García‐Chavarría & Lara‐Flores, 2013; García‐Romero et al, 2014; Yi et al, 2018). It is reported that approximately 10 million tons of crustaceans are generated annually worldwide (FAO, 2018).…”