Necessity of dietary calcium supplement in black sea bream

A feeding experiment was conducted to investigate the utilization of Ca fro m sea water by black sea bream Acanthopagrus schlegeli and the effect of di etary tricalcium phosphate on their growth and bone mineralization. Fish we re fed the four casein based diets containing Ca-lactate, no supplement of Ca, and low and high levels of tricalcium phosphate for 10 weeks. The Ca un supplemented diet gave growth and bone mineralization comparable to the die t with a Ca-lactate supplement. Low and high supplements of Ca from tricalc ium phosphate appeared not to affect the growth and bone mineralization. Th e present study indicates that a dietary supplement of Ca may be dispensabl e in a black sea bream diet.