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¹ Çukurova University, Faculty of Fisheries, Department of Aquaculture, 01330, Adana, Turkey DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v15_2_28 Viewed : 6064 - Downloaded : 5718 This study was designed to investigate the effects of starvation and refeeding cycles on growth performance and body chemical composition of juvenile sea bass. For this purpose, a total of 720 juveniles with an initial mean weight (IW) of 5.85±0.54 g were divided into 12 tanks (400 L) in triplicate groups. During the period of the experiment, the control group (C) was fed to satiation three times a day. The feeding regimes of the other three groups were designed as follows: 2 days starvation / 8 days satiation (G1) (5 cycles), 5 days starvation / 20 days satiation (G2) (2 cycles) and 10 days starvation / 40 days satiation (G3) (1 cycle). After 50 days, only group G1 demonstrated partial compensatory growth. The difference between the final weights (FW) of groups was found statistically significant (P<0.05). Specific growth rates (SGR) of fasting groups were lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). G1group was determined to have the best values of feed conversion ratio (FCR) and economic conversion ratio (ECR). Hepatosomatic index (HSI) did not differ significantly between groups (P>0.05). Total fat (TF) was lowest in G3 (P<0.05). The partial compensation by group G1 presents possibilities for economic optimization. Keywords : European sea bass, starvation-refeeding, compensatory growth, body chemical composition, economic evaluation