Beneficial Effects on Growth Performance of Brown Shrimp (Penaeus Aztecus) Fed Dietary Inulin and Vitamin C

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This study evaluated the effects of different dietary doses of inulin, vitamin C and combinations on the growth performance of brown shrimp (Penaeus aztecus). The experiment was conducted over a period of 84 days using 27 tanks (20 juvenile shrimp/tank, initial weight: 0.85 g) with a total of 540 individuals. Nine dietary treatments were formulated: I0C0 (control, basal diet); I3C0 (0.3% inulin); I4C0 (0.4% inulin); I0C0.1 (0.1% vitamin C); I0C0.2 (0.2% vitamin C); I3C0.1 (0.3% inulin + 0.1% vitamin C); I4C0.1 (0.4% inulin + 0.1% vitamin C); I3C0.2 (0.3% inulin + 0.2% vitamin C); and I4C0.2 (0.4% inulin + 0.2% vitamin C). Shrimp fed with the I4C0.2 diet exhibited the highest growth performance, achieving the best values for final body weight, weight gain, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio, and feed conversion ratio. While the I4C0.2 group showed superior feed efficiency, intermediate improvements were observed in the I3C0.2, I4C0.1, and I0C0.2 groups, which also demonstrated significantly higher performance metrics compared to the control (P < 0.05). These findings highlight the potential of inulin and vitamin C as effective feed additives for improving growth performance in brown shrimp, either individually or in combination. The remarkable synergistic effects observed in the I4C0.2 group suggest that this combination promotes better growth and feed efficiency. Future studies should explore the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying these effects to optimize the application of inulin and vitamin C as functional feed additives.