Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of sex and two periods of feeding with a diet that included astaxanthin on productive performance, color and pigmentation of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) at harvest. The trial was carried out in sea cages (5x5x10 m). A total of 1368 coho salmon were assigned to 4 cages with 342 salmons in each, two cages for the experimental group (80 ppm of astaxanthin for 105 days) and two for the control group (80 ppm of astaxanthin for 55 days). The variables registered were weight, feed efficiency, condition factor, carcass yield, hepatosomatic and gonadosomatic indexes, color and pigmentation of steak and fillet. The color was evaluated with Roche