Effect of Dietary Probiotics (Lactobacillus acidophilus) on the Growth Performance of Labeo Rohita

The present study was carried out to evaluate the influence of dietary supplementation of probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus), on growth performance of Labeo rohita.The probiotic L. acidophilus was procured from the market and the feed was prepared by crushing the basal food with probiotic bacteria in different combinations.The feeding trials were conducted in triplicate for 60 days, to determine the effect of dietary probiotics on growth status of fish.For this, the live fishes (L.rohita) were captured from Sagar Taal, Budaun, U.P. After acclimatization for 10 days, the fishes with similar body weight were distributed randomly into five treatment groups at Department of Zoology, Bareilly College, Bareilly, U.P. These fishes were given basal feed containing L. acidophilus in five concentrations viz., 0.5 (T 1 ), 1.0 (T 2 ), 1.5 (T 3 ), 2.0 (T 4 ) and 2.5 (T 5 ).The control group (T 0 ) was fed basal food only, without L. acidophilus for the same period.Growth was analysed by measuring body length and weight, after the interval of every 15 days (at 15, 30, 45 and 60 days).Two treatment groups (T 4 and T 5 ) showed better growth of fishes, than any other treatment group.Group T 4 showed a weight gain of 20.51 ± 0.64%, while the percentage length gain was 16.40 ± 0.43%.Similarly, the performance of group T 5 was also found good (weight gain 20.22 ± 0.61%, length gain 17.05 ± 0.08%).On the other hand, the results of control treatment were comparatively poor (weight gain 19.50 ± 0.49%, length gain 15.37 ± 0.08%).These results suggest that L. acidophilus can be used as an effective probiotic @ 2% or more in the form of dietary supplement, for L. rohita in aquaculture practices.