Taurine is a non‐protein amino acid which is necessary for various biological processes including anti-oxidative property and detoxification . To evaluate the effect of dietary taurine on growth performance, body composition and antioxidant enzyme activities of grass carp , an experiment al trail of 60 days was conducted . Four experimental diets were made containing 0, 6, 12 and 24 g/kg of taurine. The fingerlings were fed twice daily in triplicates while keeping water quality parameters constant. The supplementation of taurine significantly improved the performance of growth and antioxidant enzym e activities in fish . A significant improvement in the absolute growt h, weight gain % (WG %), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and s pecific growth rate (SGR) was observed (p>0.05) while the feed intake and rate of survival showed non- significant results. The hepatosomatic index (HSI) , viscerosomatic index (VSI), superoxide dismutase (SOD) , catalase and glutathione peroxide (GPX) activity in the liver of grass carp fingerlings was also enhanced significantly. Among body proximate composition, the crude protein, crude fat and crude ash showed non-significant results while moisture was significantly affected . Hence, i t was concluded that taurine supplementation in the diet improves the growth performance and antioxidant status of grass carp without effecting quality of fillets.
Keywords: Body indices, SOD, glutathione peroxide, catalase, feed efficiency