The Effects of Dietary Vitamin C Levels on Tissue Ascorbic Acid Concentration and Growth in European Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, L.1758)

Abstract

The effect of different dietary levels of L-ascorbic acid on the growth and vitamin C concentration in the tissue of European Sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, L.1753) with an initial body weight of 4.6±1.1 g was studied. Four practical diets were formulated to containing 10 (AA10), 25 (AA25), 42 (AA42) and 65 (AA65) mg ascorbic acid equivalent kg-1 diet. The results of a 20 week feeding trial showed that typical vitamin C-deficiency signs and high mortality in the fish fed with the AA10 diet. The fish fed with AA42 (42 mg kg-1 AA diet) showed a significantly higher final body weight than the other diets (P less than 0.05) and the concentrations of ascorbic acid (AA) in the brain of these fish were higher than in the other experimental group (P less than 0.05). In this study, the amount of storage in the organs occurred in this order: brain, kidney, liver.