Abstract
A 70 days feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of graded level of L-ascorby-2-polyphosphate (APP) on growth performance and hematological indices of juvenile mahseer Tor putitora. Four different 40% protein experimental diets supplemented with APP at the rate of 0, 100, 200 and 300 mg APP kg(-1) diet were fed to triplicate group of fish. The APP supplementation showed their effect in a dose dependent manner. Significantly (P < 0.05) improved growth performance i.e. weight gain (WG%), feed conversion efficiency (FCE%), specific growth rate (SGR%) and hepatosomatic index (HSI%) was observed with APP(300), followed by APP(200) and then APP(100) enriched diet. The growth hormone (GH) level of fish also increased with increase in concentration of APP in the diet and showed a positive relationship with WG%. Moreover, the hematological parameters like red blood cell count, hemoglobin and hematocrit values also followed the same trend in response to graded levels of dietary APP supplementation, significantly (P < 0.05) higher values with APP300 enriched diet followed by APP200 diet while comparatively low, but significantly higher (P < 0.05) values as compared to control group of fish were obtained in response to APP100 supplemented diets. The results of this study indicate the dose dependent beneficial effects of APP on growth performance and hematological indices of T. putitora. (C) 2015 Friends Science Publishers