A 60-day feeding trial was conducted to assess the effects of dietary supplementation with bile salts (BS), lutein (LTN), and their combination on growth, survival, carotenoid content, and antioxidant status of rabbitfish (Siganus rivulatus) larvae. Fish were fed four isonitrogenous (34.39% protein) and isoenergetic (20.57 kJ/g) diets supplemented with BS (0.15 g kg-1), LTN (0.1 g kg-1), BS+LTN (0.15 and 0.1 g kg-1, respectively), and a non-supplemented control diet. The results revealed that fish fed BS+LTN had the highest significant specific growth rate (4.37% day-1), feed efficiency (46.55%), and survival (97.78%). Lutein supplementation improved whole-body protein content, meanwhile, fish fed a BS-supplemented diet had a higher lipid content. The carotenoid deposition was significantly increased with LTN and BS+LTN in skin, muscle, and whole body compared to the control and BS treatment. All dietary supplementation of BS and LTN showed significant improvement in total antioxidant capacity, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase activities. Additionally, LTN alone or BS+LTN significantly reduced malondialdehyde levels by 5.30 and 29.91%, respectively compared to the control. BS supplementation modulated aminopeptidases activities, triglycerides, cholesterol, and increased the activity of pancreatic lipase. Therefore, it could be inferred that dietary supplementation with LTN in combination with BS could improve the growth performance, carotenoid deposition, antioxidant status, lipid digestion, and metabolism of S. rivulatus.
Keywords: antioxidant; bile salts; carotenoid content; growth; lutein; rabbitfish (Siganus rivulatus).