Vitamin deficiency

The lack of essential vitamins in the diets of freshwater and saltwater fishes can lead to health problems, a common one in fish being head and lateral line erosion disease.

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
Functions: enzymes systems, bone, tooth and cartilage formation and healing.

Deficiencies: hemorrhagic skin, kidneys, liver, intestine and muscle tissue, eye lesions and scoliosis of the spine.

Fat Soluble Vitamins

Vitamin A
Functions: normal vision, cell growth and resistance to infection Deficiencies: - poor growth, poor vision, abnormal bone formation and hemorrhaging at the base of the fins

Vitamin D
Functions: calcium blood levels (?) Deficiencies: - unknown

Vitamin E
Functions: antioxidant, may paly a role in muscle cell respiration Deficiencies: - anemia and poor growth

Water Soluble Vitamins

Thiamine (B1)
Functions: aids growth, digestion and fertility, nervous system Deficiencies: - poor appetite, muscle atrophy, convulsions, loss of equilibrium and poor growth

Riboflavin (B2)
Functions: vision, protein metabolism and enzyme functioning Deficiencies: - photophobia, cloudy lens, dim vision, abnormal colouration of the iris, striated constrictions on the abdominal wall, dark pigmentation, poor appetite, anemia and poor growth

Nicotinic Acid (niacin, B3) Functions: plays an important role in lipid, protein and amino acid metabolism Deficiencies: - loss of appetite, poor growth, lesions in colon, erratic motion and weakness, edema of stomach and colon

Pantothenic Acid (B5) Functions: adrenal functioning, cholersterol production, normal physiology and metabolism Deficiencies: - poor growth, sluggishness, clubbed gills, loss of appetite, hemmorhagic skin and cellular atrophy

Pyroxidine (B6)
Functions: plays a vital role in enzyme systems and protein metabolism Deficiencies: - nervous disorders, fits, loss of appetite, poor growth, rapid and gasping breathing, flexing of opercles and hyperirritability

Cyanocobalamin (B12)
Functions: enzyme systems, cholesterol metabolism Deficiencies: - poor appetite, poor growth, anemia and dark pigmentation

Ascorbic Acid (C)
Functions: enzyme systems, bone, tooth and cartilage formation and healing Deficiencies: - hemorrhagic shin, kidneys, liver, intestine and muscle tissue, eye lesions and scoliosis of the spine

Biotin (H) Functions: enzyme systems, purine and lipid synthesis, oxidation of lipids and carbohydrates Deficiencies: - loss of appetite, poor growth, anemia, skin lesions and muscle atrophy

Choline Functions: good growth and food conversion Deficiencies: - poor growth, poor food conversion, hemorrhagic kidney and intestine

Folic Acid (M)
Functions: blood cell formation, blood glucose regulation and fish metabolism Deficiencies: - poor growth, lethargy, dark skin, anemia and fragility of the caudal fin
Inositol
Functions: cell membrane permeability Deficiencies: - poor growth, distended stomach, skin lesions and increased gastric emptying time

p-Aminobenzoic Acid
Functions: unknown Deficiencies: - no abnormal indication in growth, appetite and mortality