Supplementation of ascorbic acid 2-monophosphate during the early postlarval stages of the shrimp Penaeus vannamei

A culture trial was performed using five levels of ascorbic acid 2-monophosphate (AmP at 0, 10, 100, 1000 and 2000 mg kg^?1 diet, expressed as active ascorbic acid, AA) in a semipurified diet for early postlarval Penaeus vannamei. The experiment started 10 days after metamorphosis of the mysid larvae into postlarvae (=PL10). Each treatment was run in four replicates. P. vannamei postlarvae showed significantly better growth according to dietary AA level after 25 days of feeding, i.e. at PL36 stage. Whereas the dry weight of PL36 in the control treatment (0 mg AA kg^?1 diet) was only 2 mg, supplementation of 1000 mg AA kg^?1 increased the shrimp dry weight up to 18 mg. However, the growth in the other treatments was not significantly different from the control. Fitting a broken-line regression to the biomass yield demonstrated an optimal dietary level of 130 mg AA kg^?1 diet. There were no differences observed among the treatments in stress resistance of postlarval P. vannamei to a salinity shock.