The Odontobutis potamophila belongs to Perciformes, Odontobutidae. It is an important freshwater commercial fish distributing in the Yangtze River and its tributaries, China. There is no report on the nutritional requirements and metabolic characteristics of the early development of O. potamophila. The content of proteins as well as the composition and content of amino acids during the embryonic and larval development of O. potamophila were analyzed. The fertilized eggs (Ⅰ), embryos at cleavage stage (Ⅱ), blastula stage (Ⅲ), gastrula stage (Ⅳ), lens formation stage (Ⅴ), eye pigmentation stage (Ⅵ), prehatching stage (Ⅶ), and larvae of 1 day after hatching (Ⅷ), 8 days after hatching (Ⅸ) were collected for biochemical analysis. The results indicated that a significant reduction was detected in the total protein content during the embryonic and larval development (P < 0.05, Fig. 1). Eighteen kinds of total amino acids (TAA) and nineteen kinds of free amino acids (FAA) were detected. The TAA content decreased during the embryonic and larval development (Table 1). Overall, the changes in the content of total essential amino acids (TEAA) and the content of total non-essential amino acids (TNEAA) reflected that of the TAA content. Qualitatively, the predominant amino acids were leucine, lysine, glutamic acid and aspartic acid during the embryonic and larval development. In contrast, the FAA pool increased with development (Table 2), the changes were reflected in both the free essential amino acids (FEAA) and the free non-essential amino acids (FNEAA), and the predominant free amino acids were lysine, leucine, proline and glutamic acid. Throughout development, the FAA accounted for only a small proportion (0.16% in fertilised eggs) of the TAA content. Because the egg protein content and the TAA content declined with development, the FAA pool increased during development, and it was concluded that the rate of breakdown of yolk protein was higher than the anabolic and catabolic processes during embryogenesis.