Effect of Botanical Based Diet Supplementary Probiotic (BBD) and a mixture of fish gut hostile bacterial flora such as Lactobacillus sp. and Bacillus sp. (FG probiotic) on the growth of ornamental fish red orange sword tail fish of Xiphophorus helleri was investigated. The FM at a level of 5g / kg feed had no effect on growth rate rather it reduced the growth compared to control group. On the other hand, in FM probiotic feed fed X. helleri except FCR (P<0.01) the variations in growth parameters were statistically insignificant. Although, X. helleri there existed significant differences in the total wet weight gain and FCR of FM probiotic feed fed and control groups. The FM and SBM probiotic feed fed fishes did not show any significant protection (P>0.05). When X. hellerei were fed either a diet containing fishmeal (FM) as the crude protein source or a diet containing 50% replacement with soybean meal (BBD) for 10 weeks. The posterior intestine microvilli of BBD-fed fish were significantly shorter and the anterior intestine microvilli significantly less dense than the FM-fed fish. No significant differences in total viable counts of culturable microbial populations were found between the groups in any of the intestinal regions.
