author(s)
Castro-Mejía G, Castro-Mejía J, Castro-Castellón AE and Martínez-Meingüer AM

abstract
The aim of this work was to evaluate the growth of the tetra-hybrid Pargo-UNAM in a Biofloc system with moringa as carbon source and with different diets. Plastic beakers of 250 L were conditioned with 150 L of water and were placed 60 juveniles of the tetra-hybrid Pargo-UNAM. The control diet was commercial trout pellet, one experimental diet was a commercial carotenoid pigment-rich diet (TetraColor®) and two formulated diets were also used, one based on carrots and the other based on beetroot. The diet based with beetroot was the one that obtained the best results with a final total length of 15.61 ± 0.90 cm and reaching a weight of 363.75 ± 0.29 g. The other pigment-rich diets obtained high values in the organism’s growth too. In conclusion the addition of carotenoids pigments is important for the culture of fishes to reach a commercial size in less time.