Effects of Dietary Paprika and Lipid Levels on Growth and Skin Pigmentation of Pale Chub (Zacco Platypus) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Carotenoids are important pigments in birds, insects, fishes and crustaceans. In aquaculture, colors of skin and muscle are primarily indicators for quality characteristics and affect acceptance and market prices of farmed fish. Fish can not synthesize carotenoids de novo (Goodwin, 1984). The pigmentation of fish skin and muscle therefore relies entirely on absorption and deposition of carotenoid from feeds. However, the absorption and deposition of carotenoid are affected by several factors including their kinds and dietary concentration (Boonyaratpalin and Unprasert, 1989; Storebakken and Goswami, 1996; Booth et al., 2004; Kalinowski et al., 2005), dietary nutrients composition (Choubert and Luquet, 1983; Torrissen 1985; Gouveia et al., 2003; Choubert et al., 2006) and feeding period (Torrissen et al., 1995). Particularly, the effects of dietary lipid source and level on the absorption and deposition of carotenoids have been extensively investigated (Torrissen, 1985; Nickell and Bromage, 1998; Barbosa et al., 1999).