By adding rehmannia powder or Chinese yam powder into the high-lipid diets of Cyprinus carpio haematopterus, this study was conducted to investigate whether Chinese herbal medicine additives could improve the adverse effects of a high lipid diet on the growth and physiology and lipid metabolism of fish. A total of 360 healthy Cyprinus carpio haematopterus with an initial body mass of (79.97±9.86) g were randomly divided into 4 groups: the control group (NC), high lipid group (HLD), rehmannia added group (HLD+R), and yam added group (HLD+Y). The fish were fed with a basal diet, high fat diet (fat content 14%), high fat diet + 4% rehmannia powder and high fat diet + 2% yam powder, respectively. A 12-week feeding trial was performed, and all the fish were fed to satiety during the first 3 weeks. Then, the fish were fed at the same feeding rate during the subsequent breeding period. Samples were taken at the end of 3, 7, and 12 weeks to detect growth and serum biochemical parameters, hepatopancreas fat content, and lipid metabolism-related gene expression levels. The results showed that the growth rate of C. carpio haematopterus was decreased by the HLD diet, and this effect had a significant effect at the end of the 7th week (P＜0.05). In contrast, the addition of rehmannia powder or Chinese yam powder in the HLD diet could inhibit this effect. Serum activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were significantly increased by the HLD diet (P＜0.05), and the activities of ALT in serum were significantly decreased by rehmannia powder or Chinese yam powder, but had no effect on ALP activity (P ＞ 0.05); the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the HLD group and HLD + R group was significantly lower than that in the NC group after the first 3 weeks of full feeding (P＜0.05), after which there was no significant difference between groups. HLD diet increased blood lipid and liver lipid content, while rehmannia or yam can significantly decrease blood lipid, especially serum triglyceride content. There was no significant difference in the expression of lipid metabolism related genes in the hepatopancreas among the four groups in the first 3 weeks. After that, the expression of Fas, Acc1 and Ppar-α genes increased significantly in the HLD group (P＜0.05). The addition of rehmannia powder or yam powder significantly inhibited the increase of Acc1 and Fas levels induced by the HLD diet (P＜0.05), however, their inhibitory effect on Ppar-α expression was not significant; and the expression levels of Cpt-1 and Lpl genes in the HLD group were significantly lower than those in the NC group at the end of the 7th week (P＜0.05), and higher than that in the NC group at the end of the 12th week. The expression of these two genes was significantly up-regulated by adding rehmannia powder or yam powder in the HLD diet (P＜0.05). Therefore, high dietary lipid level can inhibit the growth of C. carpio haematopterus and affect the activity of serum enzymes and may lead to elevation of blood lipid and liver fat accumulation by affecting the expression of lipid metabolism related genes in the hepatopancreas; the addition of rehmannia or yam can counteract the adverse effects caused by an HLD diet.