Feeding and development of warm water marine fish larvae in early life

Mass mortality in the early stage of fish larvae frequently occurs in marine fish hatchery, and low survival has become a major bottleneck hindering fingerling production of marine fish. Inappropriate food supply is a key factor leading to fish mortality during the nursery period in a hatchery. The success of fish larvae to capture live prey in early life has become an important benchmark in hatchery production. Therefore, an understanding of feeding biology and development of marine fish larvae is essential to select appropriate feed and rearing environment to improve fish performance in the initial rearing period. In this chapter, we review both internal and external factors regulating the feeding and development of warm water marine fish larvae focusing on pompano Trachinotus ovatus, orange-spotted grouper Epinephelus coioides, and coral trout Plectropomus leopardus in attempts to understand the relationships of feeding, development, environmental requirements and performance of fish larvae.