Growth performance and body composition of the Oriental River Prawn, Macrobrachium nipponense (de Haan, 1849), fed different dietary levels of astaxanthin

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of different levels of astaxanthin pigment on growth indices, feed efficiency and biochemical composition of Oriental river prawn. In this study, 225 prawns with mean weight of 1.40±0.05 g were fed by 5 dietary treatments containing different levels of astaxanthin zero (control), 50, 100, 150 and 200 mg astaxanthin per kg diet for 8 weeks. Results at the end of the experiment showed that the diets containing astaxanthin showed a significant difference with the control treatment (p<0.05). However, hepatosomatic index was not affected by different astaxanthin treatments (p>0.05). The highest weight gain, survival rate and lowest feed conversion ratio were observed in 150 mg astaxanthin per kg diet. Carcass moisture, protein and lipid were significantly different from control treatment (p<0.05) but the ash of experimental treatments had no significant difference with control treatment (p>0.05). The results of this study showed that increased levels of dietary astaxanthin improved the growth and nutritional indices of the Oriental river prawn and adding 150 mg per kg astaxanthin to the diet was suggested to improve the growth performance, feed efficiency and carcass quality of this prawn.