Effects of dietary magnesium supplementation on growth, feed utilization, nucleic acid ratio and antioxidant status of fingerling Heteropneustes fossilis

Abstract

Abstract To investigate the effects of dietary magnesium on growth, feed utilization, nucleic acid ratio and antioxidant status of Heteropneustes fossilis and determine the optimum dietary magnesium requirement, basal diet (400 g/kg crude protein and 17.89 MJ/kg gross energy) supplemented with magnesium sulfate at 0, 2.02, 4.05, 6.08, 8.11 and 10.14 g/kg diet, yielding 0, 0.20, 0.40, 0.60, 0.80 and 1.0 g magnesium per kg of the diet were fed to triplicate groups of fishes. Analyzed values of dietary magnesium were found to be 0.06, 0.28, 0.45, 0.68, 0.88 and 1.05 g/kg. Increasing dietary magnesium levels significantly (P