the chemical composition of the essential oils of mentha arvensis and mentha piperita and their antimicrobial activity against twelve aeromonas spp. isolates from tambaquis (colossoma macropomum), an important native farmed fish species in brazil, were evaluated. the oils were characterized using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (gc/ms) and their antimicrobial activity was evaluated through the microdilution method. the essential oils of these mentha species mainly comprised oxygenated monoterpenes (97.1% for m. arvensis and 86.2% for m. piperita) and menthol was the major compound of these oils (86.1% for m. arvensis and 33.8% for m. piperita). it was confirmed that these oils had antimicrobial activity against 12 isolates of aeromonas spp., with minimum inhibitory concentration (mic) and minimum bacterial concentration (mbc) ranging from 1,250 to 16,666.7 g ml-1. better antimicrobial activity was achieved by the m. arvensis essential oil.