Impact of different dietary vitamin C contents on growth, survival, fecundity and egg diameter in the zebrafish, Danio rerio (Pisces, Cyprinidae)

This study was conducted to examine the Impact of different dietary vitamin C contents ongrowth, survival, fecundity and egg diameter in the zebrafish, Danio rerio. Zebrafish were divided into 5treatments each replicated three times, and fed with one of five diets for 20 weeks. The experimentalvitamin C diets were formulated to contain 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg ascorbic acid kg-1 with 1control group (0 mg kg-1). In the vitamin C treatments, the body weight increase (BWI), specific growthrate (SGR) and fecundity of zebrafish increased significantly with increasing the levels of vitamin C(P<0.05). There were no significant differences in egg diameter observed between the treatments. Thesurvival rate of zebrafish fed the diets containing 1000 and 2000 mg kg-1 AA was higher than othergroups. The significance of the results herein obtained underlined the importance of diet in thereproductive process, supporting the hypothesis that feed additives can improve fecundity. Consideringthat the zebrafish has been clearly established as a vertebrate model for biomedical research, theseresults support the potentiality of feed additives such as vitamins can improve reproduction in allvertebrates, including humans.