THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING NATURAL MINERALS IN THE DIET OF FEMALE CARP

Abstract

At the present stage of fishing industry development in Ukraine, considerable attention should be paid to
the intensification and reproduction of aquatic bio-resources. One of the important prerequisites for achieving
these goals is the balanced feeding of fish, which is the basis of fishing industry efficiency, as it determines
the state of health, reproductive capacity, intensity, and growth rate of the fish. In addition, it is necessary
to take into account the economic component and the environmental friendliness of feed components,
since most of the costs of fish farms are related to feeding. That is why the aim of our work is studying the
influence of natural mineral additives (activated bentonite, saponite) on the trace element composition and
the state of caviar antioxidant protection system, provided that they are introduced into the basic ration of
carp females during the pre-spawning period. The studies were conducted on three groups of female carp,
which, by the principle of analogues, were divided into one control and two experimental groups of 5 individuals
in each. Carp females of the first experimental group were fed a balanced compound feed with the
inclusion of activated bentonite in the amount of 0.2 % of the feed weight, females of the second experimental
group - with the inclusion of 5 % saponite in the basic feed composition. Females of the control
group consumed the same compound feed without additives. At the end of the experiment, 3 samples of caviar
were selected in all groups. In the experimental samples of the first group (with adding 0.2 % of bentonite
in the diet of carp females) there was a significant increase of zinc content by 30.5 % (p<0.05). Besides, adding
5 % of saponite in the second experimental group enabled to reduce the content of heavy metal – nickel
by 3 times (p<0,05), which may indicate the sorption capacity of saponite. At the same time, the effectiveness
of using activated bentonite in the amount of 0.2 % was proven while assessing the state of the caviar antioxidant
protection system. In this case the adding of this mineral contributed to a significant increase in the
activity of superoxide dismutase by 1.8 times (p<0.01). There was also a significant decrease of TBAs by
97 % as a result of adding saponite in the given amount to the main ration. Based on the obtained results, it
becomes clear that using 0.2 % of activated bentonite clay of the feed weight has almost the same effect on
the quality of caviar as using 5 % saponite clay in the ration of female carp.