Evaluation of Liver Damage and Herbal Detoxification of Coral Reef Fish Caused by Ammonia Stress

ABSTRACT Ammonia nitrogen can cause serious toxicological damage to fish and cause fish death. This study focused on liver damage caused by ammonia nitrogen stress in coral reef fish and used herbal extracts to improve ammonia poisoning and prevent liver tissue damage. Effective prevention of ammonia poisoning is critical in the large‐scale aquaculture of coral reef fish. In this study, Amphiprion ocellaris , a large‐scale coral reef fish aquaculture species, was selected as the experimental fish species. Natural botanicals were added to the feed to evaluate their ability to mitigate oxidative stress in the liver and A. ocellaris stress resistance. The natural botanicals used in this study included Silybum marianum (SM), Lycium chinense (LC), Vigna radiate (VR), Vigna angularis (VA) and Colix lacrymaiobi (CL), respectively. The concentrations added were 1000 (I) and 2000 (II) mg kg −1 , respectively. Twelve days of feeding were performed. After the end of the day, the fish were challenged with unionized ammonia‐N 0.2 and 0.6 mg L −1 . Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), growth and survival were detected to evaluate resistance to ammonia and oxidative stress in the liver. Histopathological studies were conducted on the liver tissues of each treatment group. The results demonstrated that SM(I) and SM(II) can improve A. ocellaris resistance to ammonia stress and increase its growth and survival rates. These results can be applied to the large‐scale breeding of marine fish to prevent and control ammonia stress effectively.