Study of factors affecting the efficiency of carotenoid pigments in aquaculture

Due to the rapid increase in human population, the need for food sources is also rising sharply. Aquatic organisms are one of the most important food sources. Due to no change in catch rates and even reducing in fish stocks, the way to achieve this amount of food is aquaculture. Other factor affecting the growth of the aquaculture industry, is its role in providing healthy and high-quality food products. One of the most important characteristics of edible aquatic animals, in evaluating its quality, is suitable color. Because of the high cost of creating and maintaining quality of colors in aquatic animals and also importance of color in the quality and economic value of aquaculture products, the aim of this study was to identify factors affecting the efficiency of carotenoid pigments on aquatic animals. The results showed that many factors affect the efficiency of carotenoids in aquatic animals, such as characteristics of aquatic species (species, sex, age and weight of species), type and source of the pigment, dosage and purity of the pigment, matrix in which the carotenoid is incomorated, amount and composition of diet, time and frequency of feeding, environmental factors (temperature, light, salinity), genetic factors, etc. This means we can not have a correct impression of carotenoids efficiency, without evaluating the interaction of all factors mentioned.