Growth performance and physiological response of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus (B.) fed organic selenium prior to the exposure to environmental copper toxicity

• Published in: Aquaculture 2007-11, Vol.272 (1-4), p.335-345
• Main Authors: Abdel-Tawwab, Mohsen, Mousa, Mamdouh A.A., Abbass, Fayza E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African catfish; Agnatha. Pisces; Animal aquaculture; Animal productions; Aquaculture; Biological and medical sciences; Blood chemistry; Catfish; Clarias gariepinus; Copper; Copper toxicity; Diet; Freshwater; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Growth; Liver and kidney functions; Organic chemicals; Organic selenium; Physical growth; Toxicity; Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution
• ISSN: 0044-8486; 1873-5622
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2007.09.004

A growth trial was conducted to investigate the effect of organic selenium (OS) supplementation on the growth performance of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus (B.). After feeding trial, fish were exposed to environmental copper (Cu) toxicity for 7 days. Fish (68.7±2.3 g) were randomly distributed at a rate of 400 fish into 16 tanks, 150 L each. Fish were fed a diet (30% crude protein) containing either 0.0 (control), 0.1, 0.3, or 0.5 g OS kg−1 diet for 12 weeks. The feeding rate was 3% of live body weight per day. The amount of feed for each tank was divided to 2 equal meals and offered to fish at 9:00 and 14:00 h; 5 days a week. After feeding trial, a part of fish per each treatment were randomly used to determine the lethal concentration of Cu after 96 h exposure (96-h LC50). The rest of fish were further exposed to sublethal Cu dose (2.27 mg Cu2+ L−1) for 7 days. Growth performance and feed efficiency of fish fed on 0.3 g OS kg−1 diet were significantly (P