Effect of astaxanthin on growth, body chemical composition and some blood serum biochemical indices in grey mullet,Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of astaxanthin on the growth performances (final weight (FW), specific growth ratio (SGR) and condition factor (CF)) feed indices (feed conversion rate (FCR), voluntary feed intake (VFI) and protein efficiency ratio (PER)), body chemical (protein, fat, moisture and ash) and some blood serum biochemical parameters (total protein, glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol) of Mugil cephalus for 60 days. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 120 of Mugil cephalus (with average weight of 11.77±0.07g) in 4 treatments and 3 replicates (n=10 in each replicate) and included: control group without using astaxanthin, an another groups (treatment 2, 3 and 4) the amounts of astaxanthin were 50,100 and 150 mg/kg food. The results showed that at the end of experiment, the highest FW (4.22±0.11g), DGI (1.77±0.51%), the lowest FCR (0.95±0.05), the highest SGR, PER and CF were observed in the diet containing 150 mg /kg astaxanthin which showed a significant difference compared with control group (P