Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Growth and Survival of Litopenaeus vannamei

Litopenaeus vannamei was fed with five different diets out of which four diets were prepared by supplementation of zinc oxide nanoparticles of concentrations 25, 50, 80, 100 mg kg-1 and other is control diet. Control diet is without zinc oxide nanoparticles. With a crude protein content of 35.5%, the experimental and control meals were prepared similarly. For all the treatments including control diets 2% vitamin and mineral mixture was added. The feeding trial was conducted for 63 days with three replicates in each treatment. Important water quality parameters (Dissolved oxygen, Temperature, pH, Total alkalinity and Total hardness), Growth and Survival were recorded at weekly intervals. The highest body weight gain of 7.38 gm was observed in T2(diet containing 50 mg kg-1 zinc oxide nanoparticles) and lowest body weight gain of 5.3 gm was recorded in T4 (diet containing 100 mg kg-1 zinc oxide nanoparticles). The overall highest survival of 91.6% in T2 (diet containing 50 mg kg-1 zinc oxide nanoparticles) and lowest of 58.3% in T4(diet containing 100 mg kg-1 zinc oxide nanoparticles). The diet supplementation with 50 mg kg-1 zinc oxide nanoparticles showed best FCR and SGR. Weight gain, SGR and FCR were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in T2 (diet containing 50 mg kg-1 zinc oxide nanoparticles) compared to all other treatments. Therefore, these results clearly indicate that supplementation of 50 mg kg-1 zinc oxide nanoparticles in diets benefits in increasing growth as well as survival in Litopenaeus vannamei.