Vol. 8, Issue 10, Part S (2024)

Zinc is a trace mineral which is crucial for growth, immune system, and autoxidation defence systems in fish nutrition. The goal of the present study was to determine how well various zinc sources worked as a supplement in fish feed on the growth of Cirrhinus mrigala. The present investigation aimed to evaluate the impact of several dietary inorganic zinc sources, including zinc oxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles, on growth performance. For 56 days, this experiment was conducted in a lab setting. A total of 225 mrigal advanced fry of uniform size were divided in triplicate among five experimental groups, with 15 fish per tank. Each tank had a completely aerated system and was filled with 120 litres of tap water. To regulate the quality of the water, one third of the water was siphoned every other day. The fish were given two different diets: a basic diet (control) and a treated diet enriched with zinc oxide at 30 mg/kg (T₁) and nanoparticles of zinc oxide at 30, 15, and 7.5 mg/kg (T₂, T₃, and T₄) in that order. Diets are given at a rate of 3% of their body weight and fed twice a day. During experiment every week the growth performance was documented. Following a 56-day feeding trial, there were notable (p<0.05) variations in growth performance between the control and other treatments. Higher body weight gain, a lower FCR, and a specific growth rate were seen in treatment groups T₁, T₂, T₃, and T₄. Compared to the control and another treatment, T₃ (15 mg/kg) showed the most growth. Growth in the treatment groups surpassed the control groups. Based on the findings, it can be said that 15 mg nano ZnO/kg of supplemented feed significantly (p<0.005) improved mrigal growth performance, making it a viable alternative to the control diet for improved production performance.