Certain research protocols, particularly in the field of toxicology, require that animals be fed custom or standard diets. While fish species are commonly used for these types of studies, the nutritional requirements remain unknown for many of these species. Benli Wu and colleagues carried out dose-response experiments with rare minnows (Gobiocypris rarus) in order to determine what composition of dietary protein and dietary lipids produced the highest standard growth rate among otherwise similar custom diets. Among experimental diets, intermediate amounts of dietary protein and intermediate amounts of dietary lipids both produced the most growth, although a control diet of bloodworms produced the highest growth rates overall. With these findings, Wu et al. establish some of the basic nutritional requirements of rare minnows and demonstrate the development of a new standard diet for this model organism.
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