Three experiments were conducted to study the effect of adding xanthophyll on body color of Clarias fuscus. In experiment A, walking catfish were collected from natural river, common pond and concrete pond, representing wild, semi..cultured and cultured walking catf ish. The xanthophyll content in skin and muscle of each group was 8. 01, 4. 64, 1. 61 and 2. 06, 1. 83, 0. 96 mg..kg - 1 respectively. In experiment B, adult walking catfish, with an average weight of 52g, were divided into 4 groups and fed w ith artif icial diet without ( control) or with 100, 150, 200mg..kg- 1 xanthophyll for 6 weeks. The xanthophyll content in skin and muscle of each group was 1. 07, 5. 88, 7. 02, 7. 81 and 0. 64, 1. 35, 1. 81, 1. 86 mg ..kg - 1 respectively. In experiment C, f ingerling walking catfish, with an average weight of 3. 2g, were divided into 4 groups and fed with artif icial diet w ithout ( control) or w ith 50, 100, 150mg..kg- 1 xanthophyll for 6 weeks. The xanthophyll content in skin and muscle of each group was 3. 2, 8. 73, 11. 49, 12. 51 and 0. 87, 1. 71, 1. 97, 2. 03 mg..kg - 1 respectively. The results showed that the dif ferences of body color between wild and cultured f ishes come from the different xanthophyll content in diets, the addit ion of xanthophyll could improve body color of walking catfish and the feeding strategy for pigment was adding xanthophyll 100 mg..kg- 1 in diet for adult walking catfish or xanthophyll 50 mg..kg- 1 for fingerling.