The rose bitterling (Rhodeus uyekii), aboriginal fish of Korea, have beautiful nuptial colors on the body and fins in their spawning season. So, this species has high possibility to become a new ornamental Bish. However, nothing is known about the col...
The rose bitterling (Rhodeus uyekii), aboriginal fish of Korea, have beautiful nuptial colors on the body and fins in their spawning season. So, this species has high possibility to become a new ornamental Bish. However, nothing is known about the color composition of body colors of this species. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the color component of the skin and fins of the bitterling collected from natural environment. The major component of the nuptial colors was carotenoids according to the present study. Amount of total carotenoids on the skin and fins, had a tendency to be higher during the spawning season than the non-spawning season; it was $44.9mg\%$ during spawning season and $41.8mg\%$ during non-spawning season. The composition of carotenoid during spawning season was $36.7\%$ of zeaxanthin $30.1\%$ of $\beta$-carotene, and $16.4\%$ of diatoxanthin. The composition of carotenoid during non-spawning season was $41.2\%$ of $\beta$-carotene, $18.1\%$ of diatoxanthin, and $14.0\%$ of isocryptoxanthin. The major component of the carotenoid during spawning season turned out to be zeaxanthin while the major component of the carotenoid during non-spawning season was $\beta$-carotene.