Dietary riboflavin requirement of fingerlingChanna punctatus(Bloch) based on growth, conversion efficiencies, protein retention, liver riboflavin storage, RNA/DNA ratio and carcass composition

A 16-week experiment was conducted to determine the dietary riboflavin requirement of the fingerling Channa punctatus (6.7 ± 0.85 cm; 4.75 ± 0.72 g) by a feeding casein–gelatin-based (450 g/kg crude protein; 18.39 kJ/g gross energy) purified diet containing graded levels of riboflavin (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 mg/kg diet) to triplicate groups of fish near to satiation at 09:30 and 16:30 hr. Absolute weight gain (AWG), protein efficiency ratio (PER), specific growth rate (SGR, % per day), protein retention efficiency (PRE%) and RNA/DNA ratio were positively affected by increasing concentrations of dietary riboflavin to 6 mg riboflavin per kg diet. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) decreased up to 6 mg riboflavin per kg diet but did not decrease further with higher riboflavin supplementation. Hepatic thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) concentration also supported the pattern of FCR, whereas superoxide dismutase and catalase activities increased with increasing concentrations of dietary riboflavin from 0 to 6 mg/kg. Liver riboflavin concentrations increased with increasing levels of riboflavin up to 8 mg/kg diet. Broken-line regression analysis of AWG, PRE and liver riboflavin concentrations of fingerling C. punctatus with dietary riboflavin level indicated optimum growth and liver riboflavin saturation at 5.7, 6.1 and 7.7 mg riboflavin per kg diet, respectively.