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¹ Fırat Üniversitesi Su Ürünleri Fakültesi, Elazığ DOI : 10.17693/yunusae.v2014i21953.235716 Viewed : 3667 - Downloaded : 2913 In addition to the determination of essential fatty acids demand and the physical, chemical and biologic characteristics of fatty acids, investigation of fat metabolism of fish species is also among the most important factors in the preparation of balanced and economic fish diet formulations. Essential long chain unsaturated fatty acids, especially n-3 series fatty acids, affecting growth and reproduction of fish species have mainly been investigated. However, there has been an increase in recent years in the investigation of the effects of arachidonic acid (C20:4n-6; AA), which is precursor of eicosanoids, on the growth and reproduction of fish. As a result of the researches, it was found that AA has an importance on many physiological events in fish, such as gamet and larvae quality, fertilization of eggs and hatching, survival rate of hatched larvae, immune system, and adaptation to changeable environmental factors (i.e., changes in salinity levels of water). In addition, it was determined that demand for AA is changeable between fish species, and it is also different in the same fish species for different life stages (i.e., for growth and reproduction). For this reason, it can be concluded that investigations should especially be carried out on the physiological effects of AA and demand for AA level of cultured fish species to increase their production. Keywords : Arachidonic acid, fish nutrition, essential fatty acids, aquaculture