Effects of Feed Supplementation with L-carnitine on Growth and Body Composition of Asian Catfish,Clarias batrachusFry

Desai, A.S., Singh, R.K., Sapkale, P.H. and Patil, S.D. 2010. Effects of feed supplementation with L-carnitine on growth and body composition of Asian catfish, Clarias batrachus fry. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 38: 153–157. To evaluate the effect of L-carnitine supplementation (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 g L-carnitine/kg diet) on growth and body composition 60 fries (20X3 replicates of Clarias batrachus in each group were fed for 90 d. Weight gain (7.43 ± 0.5 g), specific growth rate (3.98 ± 0.29 %/day), feed conversion efficiency (48.53±1.77%) and protein efficiency ratio (1.62 ± 0.07) were significantly higher for diet with 0.50 g L-carnitine/kg. There was no difference (P>0.05) in protein, moisture and ash contents while lipid content decreased with increasing L-carnitine level. Hepatosomatic indices also decreased with increasing L-carnitine level. The feeding results concluded that the 0.50 g L-carnitine I kg diet was optimum for good growth of C. batrachus fry.