Online First Article Dietary Formic Acid and Vitamin D3 as Growth Effective Supplement for Grass Carp Fingerlings Laiba Shafque 1, *, Muhammad Afzal 2 , Syed Zakir Hussain Shah 3 , Mehroze Fatima 4 , Huma Naz 5 , Saif ur Rehman 1 , Youchuan Wei 1 and Qingyou Liu 1, * 1 State Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources Protection and Utilization, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China 2 Department of Zoology, Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 3 Department of Zoology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan 4 Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan 5 Department of Zoology, GC Women University, Sialkot, Pakistan Article Information Received 16 October 2018 Revised 05 November 2018 Accepted 12 November 2018 Available online 26 August 2019 Authors’ Contribution LS executed the research. MF helped in compiling the data. SZHS did statistical analysis. MA supervised the study. HN and SR helped in writing the article. YW and QL reviewed the manuscript. Key words Ctenopharyngodon idella, Growth, Muscles, Formic acid, Vitamin D3. The present research was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary formic acid and vitamin D 3 on growth performance and muscle proximate analyses of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). Four experimental diets viz. FD1, FD2, FD3 and FD4 having formic acid (%) and vitamin D3 (IU/Kg) 0, 0; 2, 0; 0, 5000 and 2, 5000, respectively were prepared. Fish were fed with experimental diets for 90 days. Growth performance of fsh was observed on fortnightly basis throughout the trail. At the end of feeding trail, fsh were dissected to obtain the samples of muscles for further analysis. Two-way analysis of variance under RCBD were applied on obtained data. Results demonstrated that growth performance (weight gain, specifc growth rate and absolute weight gain) of C. idella fngerlings showed signifcant improvement by feeding formic acid and vitamin D 3 . Result showed that C. idella fed with vitamin D 3 increased the crude protein, ash and decreased the fat contents in muscles while same result was observed by supplementation of formic acid. In conclusion, dietary formic acid and vitamin D 3 improves the growth performance and muscle proximate analysis for the C. idella fngerlings. A quaculture is the world’s fastest-growing feld of agriculture (FAO, 2010). The main objective of aquaculture is to improve the health and growth performance of animals. Feed additives are the best choice (NRC, 1993) to enhance feed properties and growth performance. Antibiotics have long been used in aqua feeds, however, owning to side effects of antibiotics, European Union banned their use in animal production (FAO, 2002; Heuer et al., 2009). Alternatively, antibiotics such as natural immune stimulants, pathogen inhibitors and growth promoters which include plant extracts, probiotics, prebiotics and acidifers (Devasree et al., 2014; Reda and Selim, 2015; Romano et al., 2015; Selim and Reda, 2015) were used. * Corresponding authors: laibazoologist@gmail.com; qyliu-gene@qq.com 0030-9923/2019/0006-0001 $ 9.00/0 Copyright 2019 Zoological Society of Pakistan Fish meal is an important component of fsh diet due to high protein and presence of essential nutrients (Zhou et al., 2004). In the global market the price of fsh meal is so high because of its rising demand and limited stock; therefore, it is necessary to search for alternative plant protein sources (Pereira and Oliva-Teles, 2003). In aquaculture, the replacement of high quality fsh meal with plant meal in animal feed is the most cost- effective approach because of reasonable price, high protein content, comparatively balanced amino acid profle and stable supply of plant meals (Storebakken et al., 2000). Plant protein sources contain phytate which cannot be digested (Oliva-Teles et al., 1998), and decreases the digestibility of protein (Spinelli et al., 1983) and utilization of supplementary mineral (Gatlin and Phillips, 1989; Sugiura et al., 2001). Phytate is hydrolysed with the addition of organic acid in the diet (Hossain et al., 2007). Organic acids (propionic, butyric, formic, citric, malic, sorbic, acetic and lactic acids) and their salts can ABSTRACT Pakistan J. Zool., vol. 51(6), pp 1-4, 2019. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.pjz/2019.51.6.sc5 Short Communication