Micronutrients supplementation in diets for Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) larvae

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the vitamin and mineral requirement of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) larvae Gift lineage, being distributed in a completely randomized design, with 360 larvae of Nile tilapia, with initial average weight of 0.02g in 24 tanks with volume of 30 L. The fish were hand fed with a basal diet supplemented with increasing levels of mineral and vitamin supplement (MVS) of 0.0, 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, 2.00 and 4 0%, which constituted the treatments given five times a day at 8, 11, 14, 16 and 18 hours for a period of 40 days. We evaluated the productive performance, considering the following parameters: average final weight (FW), weight gain (WG), average total length (TL), specific growth rate (SGR) and survival (OS). The data were subjected to regression test (P <0.05), and a segmented regression to determine the best level of inclusion. The best results for FW, WG, TL, SGR and OS were observed in larvae fed diets supplemented with 1% SMV. Segmented regression analysis revealed that the demand for Nile tilapia larvae is 1.88% of SMV in the diet.