Cultured Penaeus monodon were sampled and analyzed for the carotenoid content invarious tissues to determine the relationships between the carotenoid contents and sizes,sexes,and molting stages.Carotenoid content decreased significantly with shrimp weightin range of 0.4-2.8 g.There were no significant differences between sexes in carotenoidcontent in hepatopancreas,head,flesh,and shell.For the molting stages,in wet weightbase the carotenoid contents in head,flesh,and shell were highest at D stage and lowestat B stage and there were significant differences between these two stages.However,indry weight base only in shell the carotenoid content was signficantly higher at D stagethan at B stage.Therefore,carotenoid contents in head and flesh were affected by notonly the molting stages but the water content and carotenoid contents in shell wereaffected by mainly the molting stages.