article · Reviews in Aquaculture
Vitamin C is an essential exogenous micronutrient required for the normal growth and physiological performance of most aquatic animals. While research in terrestrial animals has investigated its role in gene expression, cell cycles, and reproduction using advanced molecular biology techniques, aquatic research remains comparatively limited. Past aquatic studies have predominantly focused on determining minimum dietary requirements to achieve maximum growth, support immune responses, and develop least-cost feed formulations. This limited scope is partly caused by the absence of well-established indicators for evaluating vitamin C status in aquatic species. Advancing the field requires evaluating vitamin C sources, bioavailability, deficiencies, and stage-specific requirements across all life stages. Future investigations must also examine broader physiological impacts, including gill and liver histopathology, reproductive performance, fecundity, larval survival, and gene expression to better understand its essential role in aquaculture health and development.
Understanding precise nutritional requirements is vital for maintaining the health and productivity of farmed aquatic species. Expanding research beyond basic growth metrics to include reproduction, disease resistance, and molecular responses helps ensure that aquaculture feeds provide optimal nutrition throughout an animal's entire lifecycle, supporting more resilient and sustainable fish farming practices.
The findings inform aquafeed manufacturers and aquaculture producers aiming to formulate cost-effective feeds that support health and reproduction across all life stages. Because the abstract identifies an existing gap in status indicators and calls for further comprehensive studies, this research represents early-stage scientific guidance rather than a market-ready product. Practical application depends on future studies establishing precise nutritional targets and reliable testing indicators across species.
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Abstract Vitamins are organic compounds that can be synthesized from other essential nutrients; however, they are required in trace amounts from an exogenous source for normal growth, reproduction and health. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid, AA) is an essential micronutrient for normal growth and physiological function of most aquatic animals. In terrestrial animal nutrition, vitamin C has recently spurred scientific interest because of the increasing knowledge on vitamin C involvement in gene expression, cell cycle and reproduction in mammals; in addition, recent advances in molecular biology techniques allow the more effective estimation of the effect of vitamin C on metabolism and physiology. In contrast, this information is scarce in aquatic animal nutrition, as studies have essentially focused on the estimation of minimum vitamin C requirement for maximum growth and immune response as well as for the formulation of least‐cost diet. This scarcity of information is also due to the lack of well‐established indicators of vitamin C status in aquatic organisms. The present review summarizes and discusses information about vitamin C sources, bioavailability, deficiency and requirement in aquatic animals to plan further studies. In the future, vitamin C nutrition studies in aquaculture should also include immune responses, histopathology of the gills, liver, gonad development, gamete quality and quantity, fecundity, larvae survival and gene expression. Dietary vitamin C requirements should be estimated at every life‐history stage of cultured species. All this information will allow a better understanding of the essentiality of vitamin C in aquatic animal growth, development, reproduction and health.
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DOI: 10.1111/raq.12163
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