Malgundkar, P.P.; Pawase, A.S.; Dey, S.S.; Tibile, R.M., and Shelke, A.A., 2019. Effect of dietary Vitamin C on growth and survival of juveniles of Blue Gourami, Trichopodus trichopterus (Pallas, 1770). In: Jithendran, K.P.; Saraswathy, R.; Balasubramanian, C.P.; Kumaraguru Vasagam, K.P.; Jayasankar, V.; Raghavan, R.; Alavandi, S.V., and Vijayan, K.K. (eds.), BRAQCON 2019: World Brackishwater Aquaculture Conference. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 86, pp. 96-101. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

A 90-day feeding trial, to examine the effect of different levels of L-ascorbic acid as a source of vitamin C on growth and survival of juveniles of blue gourami, Trichopodus trichopterus, was undertaken. The experiment was conducted in triplicates following a completely randomized design under indoor environmental conditions. The juveniles of blue gourami with a size range of 4.3 – 4.5 cm length and 3.08 – 3.44 g weight were reared in 54 L glass aquaria at a density of 20 fish per tank. The semi-purified diet containing 32% crude protein was supplemented with different levels of L-ascorbic acid viz. 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320 and 640 mg kg^-1 of feed. The diet without L-ascorbic acid supplementation served as the control diet. The flake feed was delivered to the fish at a rate of 4% body weight twice a day. The results demonstrated significantly (p < 0.05) higher growth response with respect to length gain (44.28%), weight gain (76.94%), survival (98.33%) and SGR (0.63%), and better feed utilization in terms of highest PER and lowest FCR in the juveniles fed with 40 mg kg^-1 L-ascorbic acid supplemented diet than the juveniles fed other experimental diets.