Dietary folic acid requirement determined for grass shrimp, Penaeus monodon

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted to determine the dietary folic acid requirement of juvenile grass shrimp, Penaeus monodon. Purified basal diets were formulated using vitamin-free casein as the protein source. Graded levels (0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30, and 60 mg folic acid/kg diet) of folic acid were added to the basal diet, resulting in eight dietary treatments in the experiment. Each diet was fed to three replicate groups of shrimp initially averaging 0.79±0.01 g for 8 weeks. Shrimp fed diets supplemented with ≧2 mg folic acid/kg diet had greater ( P<0.05) weight gain and hepatopancreatic folic acid concentrations than shrimp fed the unsupplemented control diet. Feed efficiency (FE) was highest in shrimp fed the diets supplemented with ≧2 mg folic acid/kg diet, followed by the groups fed 1 mg/kg, then the control group. Hepatosomatic index (HSI) was highest in shrimp fed the control diet, followed by 1 mg folic acid/kg and lowest in shrimp fed diets supplemented with ≧2 mg folic acid/kg. Weight gain percentage, hepatopancreatic folic acid concentration and hepatosomatic index of the shrimp analyzed by broken-line regression indicated that the adequate dietary folic acid concentration in growing P. monodon is 1.9–2.1 mg/kg diet.