Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2010
On the basis of their respective metabolizable energy contents, supplemental marine oil was partially replaced with a maize starch/dextrin mixture in diets containing approximately 500 g crude protein per kg food thus lowering the total dietary lipid concentration from 141·6 to 100·9 g/kg. The basal diets were then supplemented with thiamin hydrochloride at 0·5, 5·0 and 10·0 mg/kg food to produce six test diets in all. After 182 days of feeding, the fish given the diets containing the higher lipid content with a thiamin supplement of 10·0 mg/kg had shown significantly better growth and food utilization (food conversion efficiency and apparent net protein utilization) than the fish presented with the remaining five diets. Thiamin supplements of 5 mg/kg or less resulted in poorer performance amongst the fish given the high lipid diets. The fish given all three of the low oil diets performed poorly by comparison with those given the high lipid, high thiamin diet and performance was comparable with that of the fish given the high lipid diets containing thiamin at 5 mg/kg or less. Proximate carcass composition in terms of moisture, protein and lipid was unaffected in response to diet. Glycogen accumulation in the liver was significantly elevated amongst the fish given the low lipid diet where the thiamin supplement was 5·0 mg/kg or more. The haematology of the fish was not significantly altered in response to diet although elevated haematocrit was associated with decreasing thiamin supplementation. It would appear that for the seabream, lipid and carbohydrate are not exchangeable on the basis of their metabolizable energy content. When given high lipid diets the thiamin requirement of the seabream is in excess of 5·0 mg/kg and increasing the thiamin supplement to 10 mg/kg in high carbohydrate diets made no impact on performance.