Table 2.

Growth performance, somatic indexes and hormone levels of gilthead sea bream juveniles (Sparus aurata) supplemented with cysteamine hydrochloride after 9 and 18 weeks.

	Phase 1 (week 1 to 9)		Phase 2 (week 10 to 18)
	Control	CSH-1.65	Control	CSH-1.65	CSH-3.3
	n = 3	n = 6	n = 3	n = 3	n = 3
IBW (g)	1.77 ± 0.03	1.81 ± 0.03	13.13 ± 0.4 b	15.4 ± 0.4 a	14.85 ± 0.3 a
IBL (cm)	4.56 ± 0.04	4.63 ± 0.03	8.23 ± 0.07 b	8.6 ± 0.02 ab	8.47 ± 0.08 a
FBW (g)	12.84 ± 0.25	14.9 ± 0.1***	41.4 ± 0.5 b	52.45 ± 1 a	54.74 ± 1 a
BL (cm)	8.17 ± 0.07	8.5 ± 0.03***	11.7 ± 0.04 b	12.65 ± 0.04 a	12.55 ± 0.06 a
CF1	2.34 ± 0.03	2.39 ± 0.02	2.57 ± 0.03	2.61 ± 0.08	2.75 ± 0.03
SGR2	3.25 ± 0.05	3.46 ± 0.03**	2.015 ± 0.04 b	2.15 ± 0.04 ab	2.29 ± 0.07 a
VSI3	7.89 ± 0.1	7.76 ± 0.06	6.03 ± 0.31	5.76 ± 0.1	6.18 ± 0.14
HSI4	1.94 ± 0.12	1.91 ± 0.03	1.37 ± 0.05	1.29 ± 0.08	1.47 ± 0.04
MFI5	1.04 ± 0.13	1.05 ± 0.06	0.81 ± 0.03 b	0.99 ± 0.05 ab	1.11 ± 0.08 a
	n = 10	n = 12-13	n = 13	n = 13	n = 14
GH (ng/ml)	1.72 ± 0.24	1.84 ± 0.23	1.66 ± 0.44 a	0.96 ± 0.28 ab	0.36 ± 0.14 b
IGF-1 (ng/ml)	13.83 ± 2.01	22.53 ± 3.23*	16.88 ± 1.72 a	23.37 ± 1.96 b	21.71 ± 1.7 ab

IBW, initial body weight; IBL, initial body length; FBW, final body weight; BL, body length; GH, growth hormone; IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor 1; ¹Condition Factor (CF) = (body weight/body length³) * 100; ²Specific Growth Rate (SGR) = [ln (FBW) – ln (IBW)] * (days)^-1 * 100; ³Viscerosomatic Index (VSI) = (viscera weight/body weight) * 100; ⁴Hepatosomatic Index (HSI) = (liver weight/body weight) * 100; ⁵Mesenteric Fat Index (MFI) = (mesenteric fat weight/body weight) * 100.

Significant differences were evaluated by a t-test (p-value: **<0.01; ***<0.001) for Phase 1 and one-way ANOVA followed by a Tukey’s post hoc test for Phase 2. Different letters in the same raw indicate significant differences between groups.

Data are shown as mean ± S.E.M. Tank was used as a technical replicate for the biometric data.