The utilization of plant-based diets in fishes could be affected by their genetic backgrounds. To examine this, three strains of one-year-old gibel carp, Dongting (strain DT: 30.42 +/- 0.05 g), CAS III (strain A: 43.34 +/- 0.08 g) and CAS & (strain F: 61.78 +/- 0.10 g), were fed fishmeal (FM), soybean meal (SBM) and rapeseed meal (RM) diets for 8 weeks. The present results showed that growth performances, feed utilization, body composition, postprandial kinetics of plasma metabolites and gene expression of lipid metabolism markers in the three strains were affected by diets and strains (p 0.05). Strain A had higher SGR than strain DT and F (A > F > DT) with the three diets, whereas strain F had higher FE than the other two strains with FM and RM diets (p 0.05). Compared to FM diet, plant protein-based diets resulted in poor growth, feed use and nutrient retention in all the three strains, and different strains showed differing changes in fatty acid synthesis and oxidation to different dietary proteins. Overall, strain A showed better growth performances than the other two strains irrespective of diet, and all the three strains could utilize RM diet better than SBM diet.