Improvement of well-being and fish fillet nutrient value of a vulnerable minor carp, Puntius sarana (Hamilton, 1822): A result of incorporating Fe trace element in diet through α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles as dietary supplements.

Iron oxide (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles (NPs) of different sizes are synthesized using a simple wet chemical method and are used as dietary supplements at rates of zero (control), 1, 2, 3, and 4 g/kg diet throughout the year in Puntius sarana to study its consequences on the growth, haematological parameters, biochemical or blood metabolic parameters, ionoregulatory characteristics, plasma lysozyme activity, antioxidant biomarkers, and fish flesh nutrient composition of the fish. The experiment is designed for bulk and nano iron oxides having particle sizes of 10, 12, 15, and 18 nm. When the concentration of NPs rises to 4 g/kg food and/or the size of the NPs is minimized up to 10 nm, the length, hemoglobin, red blood corpuscle, hematocrit, protein levels, plasma lysozyme, catalase, superoxidase dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase in the blood and crude protein of the fish flesh of P. sarana increase upto 32 cm, 9.73 g/dL, 3.22 million/mm3, 29.19 %, 7.78 g/dL, 0.97 ng/mL, 86.69 ng/mL, 39.81 μmol/min/mg protein, 44.96 U/mL, and 18.59 % respectively; and melanodialdehyde and Crude fat decrease upto 41.71 nmol TBARS/g tissue and 2.90 %, respectively. No significant changes in the values of survival rate, white blood cell, blood glucose, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase, and serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, sodium, potassium, chloride, crude moisture, and crude ash are observed between the control and treatments. Results indicate that NPs based dietary supplementations provide beneficial conditions of well-being of the fish due to increased absorption of iron in its nano form into the fish body via dietary supplements.