30 and 60 days of the food trials was not influenced
by the different treatment diets. Carotenoid
supplementation did not influence lightness of red
porgy skin neither as reported by Kalinowski et al.
(2005). The results of this study are similar to
Kalinowski, Izquierdo, Schuchardt and Robaina
(2007) who investigated dietary supplementation
times with shrimp shell meal on red porgy (Pagrus
pagrus) skin pigmentation and carotenoid concentration.
In contrast, the flame-red dwarf gourami,
Colosa lalia, fed with carotenoid diets showed a
lightening in skin colouration following group
activities and social interaction (Baron, Davies,
Alexander, Snellgrove & Sloman 2008). Pavlidis,
Papandroulakis and Divanach (2006) described
the colouration pattern of red-skinned representatives
of Sparidae. Their results showed that all
sparid species have a dorsoventral gradient in
common, with the ventral area being brighter
than the dorsal skin area. However, the Pagrus
species were lighter in the dorsal area than were
the Dentex species.