Effects of Gammarus extracts on food acceptability, growth and survival rate of juvenile Persian sturgeon (Acipenser percicus)

Abstract

In a feeding trial for 75-day, gammarus extracts were added to juvenile Acipenser percicus diets at different levels in order to evaluate its effects on growth and survival rate. In this study, three different dietary levels of extracts (1:25, 1:50 and 1:175) were added to feeding amount of juvenile A. persicus with three repetition. This experiment was carried out in 500 liters PVC tanks which were filled with about 200 liters of water. Thirty of Beluga juveniles with average weight of 5.98±0.2g) were stocked in tanks and then fed up four times a day. Growth and survival factors were analyzed at the end of experiment time. The results showed that the addition of extracts in diets led to more improvement of growth factor and increasing of FCR. Although, treatments compare to control had significant differences but the best values of improvement of growth index was achieved in gammarus extracts with average level of 1:50. There was no significant difference in survival rate between treatments (P> 0.05) .