A booklet of the World Food Organization on the subject of spirulina feeding to animals and man.
Ornamental fish
^James et al. (2006) studied the influence of different levels of Spirulina (0, 1, 3, 5 and 8 %) on feed
consumption, growth, fertility (gonad weight, number of young’s) coloration and leucocyte count in
the ornamental fish Red Swordtail.
All the parameters increased with increased Spirulina in the diet.
Fish fed with 8% Spirulina had gonads 4 times heavier than fish fed with 0-3%.
Fish fed with 8% Spirulina released 89 young against only 41 young in fish fed with 0% Spirulina.
Fish fed with Spirulina had higher leucocyte counts in all the leucocyte categories.
^James, 2009 in an experiment on the ornamental goldfish, studied the interaction between
Spirulina (30 g/kg diet) and different levels of vitamin E (100, 200, 300, and 600 mg/kg diet) on
growth, gonad weight, reproduction, and coloration for 120 days. Growth, gonad weight, and
fecundity in fish fed the diet containing spirulina+300 mg vitamin E were significantly enhanced
compared to other diets. Control fish spawned only once with fewer eggs per spawn than other
groups which spawned twice with a greater number of eggs per spawn. Females fed Spirulina
without vitamin E laid 703 eggs in two spawnings compared to 1057 eggs in fish fed with the
spirulina+300 mg vitamin E diet. Fish treated with other combinations laid fewer eggs. While all
combinations of Spirulina and vitamin E significantly enhanced coloration, the combination of
spirulina+300 mg vitamin E was the most influential.
^Dernekbasi et al. (2010) studied the effect of Spirulina at 10, 20, 30 and 40 % on Guppy juveniles
during 90 days. The 40% diet gave the best results for growth rate, weight gain and feed
conversion rate.
^Ako et al. 2001 performed experiments with 3 ornamental fish species, adding 0.4 to 2 % Spirulina
+ 0.4 to 1 % Haematococcus pluvialis. The experiment proved that adding small amount of topcoated Spirulina and Haematococcus to the diets resulted in a conspicuous color enhancement. Freshwater red velvet swordtails Xiphophorus helleri, rainbowfish Pseudomugil furcatus, and topaz cichlids Cichlasoma myrnae became significantly more intensely colored when fed a diet containing 1.5-2.0% of a carotenoid-rich strain of Spirulina platensis and 1.0% of a specially grown Haematococcus pluvialis for 3 weeks. Both treatments were significantly more effective than control treatments with no added carotenoid, and better than treatments with traditional carotenoid sources.
^ Guroy et al. (2012) studied the effect of Spirulina replacing fish meal at 0, 2.5, 5 and 10 %, on the
yellow tail cichlid during 12 weeks.
Spirulina diets increased the specific growth rate, feed intake, total egg production, egg hatching
rate, and coloration of the skin.