Received: 19-09-2013 / Accepted: 05-11-2013
Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is an economical and nutritional fish cultured in cold water areas in Vietnam. The fish meat quality is assessed not only by nutrition values (such as protein, lipid, amino acids) but also by pigmentation of fish muscle. The wildlife rainbow trout muscle pigmentation variesfrom pink to red colour. The pigmentation supplementationsuch as astaxanthin and canthaxanthin with different proportion were usually added in pellet feed to enhance thecolour of fish muscle. The objective of this study wasto assess the effect of different carotenoid sources on pigmentation of rainbow trout fillet. The fish (initial body weight of 309,20 ± 22,36g) were fed with three dietscontaining 80mg kg-1astaxanthin (CTTA 1), 60mg kg-1astaxanthin + 20mg kg-1canthaxanthin (CTTA 2) and 40mg kg-1astaxanthin + 40mg kg-1canthaxanthin (CTTA 3). There was no significant difference among experiment groups in the average weights and survey rates at the end of the experiment. After 60 daysof experiment, the pigmentation levels of trout fillet was analysed usingSalmoFan Linealpigmentation chart. The pigmentation level of fillet in fish fed with diet containing mixture of 40mg kg-1astaxanthin + 40mg kg-1canthaxanthin (29.25 ± 0.92)washigher than that of fish fed with diet containing 80mg kg-1astaxanthin (25.36 ± 1.16) or mixture of 60mg kg-1astaxanthin + 20mg kg-1canthaxanthin (26.73 ± 0.95) (P<0,5).