author(s)
Sagarika Swain, Hauzoukim, Aditya Pratap Acharya and Biswajit Mohanty

abstract
Ornamental fish culture in the glass tank or aquarium is a very common practice around the globe mainly due to their cheerful and lively color. Pigmentation is one of the most significant eminence that attributes the fish for consumer acceptability. Carotenoids are liable for pigmentation of muscle in food fish and skin color in ornamental fish. Fish endures in the natural water have good sources of carotenoid pigments as compare to fish reared in the glass tanks. This creates differences between the both i.e. wild living animals are having bright body color than those of aquarium reared fishes. As fish cannot synthesize the carotenoids de novo, therefore it is consistently added in the ornamental fish diet. Although the fish lack of synthesizing the pigments, they have advantage of storing them in the integuments and tissues which will imitate in the skin or flesh color. Aquaculture industries involve remarkable attention in respect to color, as the quality of fish in the market is also determined by the flesh color. Therefore, pigmentation is an essential factor for farming fishes as well. Consequently, dietary application of pigmentation has considerable importance not only for ornamental fish; but also, for food fishes.