Dietary pantothenic acid requirement of juvenile grass shrimp, Penaeus monodon.

A feeding trial was conducted to estimate the minimal dietary pantothenic acid (PA) requirement for juvenile grass shrimp, Penaeus monodon. Purified diets with seven levels (0, 20, 40, 60, 120, 240, and 480 mg/kg) of supplemental PA were fed to P. monodon (mean weight 0.88 +/- 0.01 g) for 8 wk. The level of PA detected in the unsupplemented diet was 0.02 mg/kg. Each diet was fed to three replicate groups of shrimp. Feed efficiencies (FE) and protein efficiency ratios were highest in shrimp fed the diets supplemented with 120, 240, and 480 mg PA/kg diet, followed by the groups fed 60 mg/kg, then 40 mg/kg, and finally the unsupplemented control group (P < 0.05). Shrimp fed diets supplemented with PA had significantly higher survival percentages and lower hepatopancreatic lipid concentration than those fed the unsupplemented, control diets. Broken-line regression analyses of weight gain percentage and hepatopancreatic CoA and PA concentrations of the shrimp indicated that the adequate dietary PA concentration in growing P. monodon is 101-139 mg/kg.