Research Article: Effect of feeding with different levels of trisodium citrate on growth performance, immunocompetence triats, and digestive enzymes in goldfish (Carassius auratus)

A ۵۶-day feeding trial was conducted to find the potential effects of trisodium citrate (TSC) on the growth performance, immue response, and digestive enzymes of goldfish. The fish (n=۱۵۰; ۲.۵۱±۰.۱۱ g) were randomly distributed into five groups with triplicates and fed with a basal diet without TSC (control diet) and four levels of TSC (۵, ۱۰, ۱۵, and ۲۰ g kg-۱) for eight weeks. Results showed that TSC supplemented diets markedly enhanced the final weight, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, and feed intake (p<۰.۰۵). Moreover, serum immune parameters such as total immunoglobulin, lysozyme, and complements (C۳ and C۴) were significantly increased with the supplementation of dietary TSC (p<۰.۰۵). Furthermore, protease, lipase, and amylase values were profoundly increased with the increments of dietary TSC compared to the control group (p<۰.۰۵) and they were almost doubled in the fish fed with TSC at ۲۰ g kg-۱ TSC compared to the control. Taken together, the optimum dosage of TSC supplementation was ۲۰ g kg-۱ in terms of growth efficiency, immune parameters, and digestive enzymes for juvenile goldfish.