Lots of 30 fish each were injected intra - 

 peritoneally with a 10 -day supply of the B- 

 complex vitamins. The injections were with 

 single vitamins, groups of vitamins, and the 

 entire B-complex with the exception of choline 

 chloride . 



RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS 



The test diets included a standard control 

 and 20 experimental diets which were designed 

 to measure the effect of four levels of meat 

 supplementation, the addition of a crystalline 

 vitamin supplement, three protein levels, and 

 four caloric levels . A summary of the results 

 of this experiment compiled at 12 weeks and 

 24 weeks is presented in table 2. At the con- 

 clusion of the feeding trials fish from each of 

 the experimental diets were showing symptoms 

 of hypovitaminosis . With the exception of the 

 low-calorie, 20-percent protein diets, the 

 remaining experimental diets produced gains 

 comparable to or exceeding that produced by 

 the control diet. 



Effect of meat and vitamin supplementation 



12 weeks .- -IDiets containing the highest 

 level of meat supplementation tended to pro- 

 duce fish with greater protein deposition and 

 better protein utilization at each of the three 

 protein levels fed, but these differences were 

 not significant . Meat supplementation did not 

 have any effect upon mortalities. At the 20- 

 percent protein level, diet 6, which was vita- 

 min supplemented, had significantly less 

 mortality than the comparable unsupplemented 

 ration, diet 5. There was no difference in 

 growth. No differences in either mortalities 

 or growth could be shown in the 25 -percent 

 protein diets due to vitamin supplementation. 



24 weeks. -- In the low -calorie 20 and 25 per- 

 cent protein diets , no difference due to the 

 amount of meat supplementation could be seen 

 in either mortalities, average weight, protein 

 deposition, or protein utilization. In the high- 

 calorie, 25-percent protein diets, fish from 

 the higher meat-supplemented diets, diets 11 

 and 12, had significantly greater protein de- 



position than did fish from comparable diets 

 containing the 10-90 combination, diets 16 and 

 17. The trend was for the fish from the higher 

 meat- supplemented diets to have better protein 

 utilization and to have fewer mortalities, but 

 these differences were not significant. No 

 differences due to meat supplementation were 

 shown in the 27.5-percent protein diets but 

 again the trend was for the fish in diet 19 witn 

 30 parts of meat to have greater protein depo- 

 sition and better utilization than fish in diet 20 

 with 10 parts meat . Table 3 summarizes the 

 results of the 25- and 27. 5 -percent protein 

 diets at the end of 24 weeks . 



TTie hypovitaminosis present at the con- 

 clusion of the experiments undoubtedly obscured 

 the effect of the meat supplementation. It does 

 appear that protein deposition was greater and 

 protein utilization was better at the higher 

 levels of meat supplementation when the caloric 

 and protein levels were increased. 



An increase in growth or a decrease in 

 mortalities could not be demonstrated when a 

 crystalline vitamin supplement was added to 

 diets which included a meat supplement (table 4). 

 Whether the vitamin supplement had any benefi- 

 cial effect upon the all-meal diet has yet to be 

 tested. Several possibilities as to why the 

 crystalline vitamin supplement was not effective 

 or available to the fish when fed in conjunction 

 with the meat supplement can be postulated. The 

 vitamins were pre-mixed using high -viscosity 

 CMC (carboxym ethyl cellulose) as the carrier. 

 This mixture was extremely hygroscopic and 

 also highly alkaline . This combination may 

 have produced such conditions in the meal 

 mixture that when it was fed with a meat sup- 

 plement the vitamins were unavailable to the 

 fish or were destroyed. Other possibilities 

 are that the vitamin supplement was not adequate , 

 or that a significant portion of the supplement 

 was lost through leaching into the water. 



Effect of protein levels 



The original experiment was designed to 

 test three protein levels, 20 percent, 25 percent, 

 and 30 percent. However, from the start, the 



