Dietary Vitamin E Potential on Growth Performance, Protein Efficiency Ratio, Liver Biochemical Status, and Rearing Media Water Quality Optimization in Male Mono-sex of the Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Under saline conditions, the ionic balance between the environment and the body of the Nile tilapia must be maintained, and this can be supported through dietary supplementation of vitamin E, which inhibits the release of free radicals. This study aimed to analyze the effect of dietary vitamin E supplementation and determine the optimal dose for improving growth performance, protein utilization efficiency, biochemical status, and survival of the Nile tilapia fry reared in a male monosex culture system over a 60-day period. The study used a completely randomized design with four treatments: Control (A), 50 mg/kg diet (B), 100 mg/kg diet (C), and 150 mg/kg diet (D), each with four replications. The Nile tilapia fry were stocked at a density of 1 fish/L with an initial biomass of 0.89 ± 0.00 g. All data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by the least significant difference (LSD) test. The results showed that the highest values for relative growth rate, survival rate, feed efficiency, and feed conversion ratio were observed in treatment D, which was significantly different (P< 0.05) from the other treatments. The best dose of vitamin E supplementation was found to be 150mg/ kg diet, as it resulted in the highest average relative growth rate (19.26 ± 0.87%) and survival rate (92.50 ± 2.89%). These parameters were positively correlated with liver biochemical conditions, as reported in this study.