Effects of High Carbohydrate and Benfotiamine on the Growth and Feed Efficiency of Juvenile Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a high carbohydrate diet (HC) alone and HC supplemented with benfotiamine (HCB), a human anti-diabetic supplement, on the growth performance of Nile tilapia fry, Oreochromis niloticus. A total of 180 Nile tilapia fry (AWB=0.01g) were randomly distributed to 9 tanks and fed one of three experimental diets, namely, a control diet containing 15% carbohydrate; high carbohydrate diet (HC) containing 25% carbohydrate; and high carbohydrate diet (25%) supplemented with 0.02% benfotiamine (HCB) for 8 weeks. Increasing corn starch in the diet from 15% (i.e. control diet) to 25% (i.e. HC diet) did not have any effect on the growth performance nor feed efficiency of the Nile tilapia. In contrast, Nile tilapia fed the HCB diet exhibited significantly the highest final average body weight, weight gain, specific growth rate, feed intake and whole-body lipid content and the most efficient FCR among the treatments. Results of the attractability tests showed that the HCB diet significantly attracted the most percentage of fish. In conclusion, the findings indicated that the Nile tilapia efficiently utilized an increase of carbohydrate from 15% to 25% and that dietary benfotiamine significantly increased the utilization of this diet, enhancing further its growth performance and feed utilization; benfotiamine also increased the attractability of the diet.