Abstract: Effects of delayed initial feeding on the foraging, growth and survival of artificial bred larvae of ovate pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) were studied under the water temperature of (26.81.4) ℃ and salinity of 28.20.8. The results showed that the larval mouth opened 3 days after hatching, and with the delayed initial feeding of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days, the feeding rate was 15%, 30%, 50% , 25%, 15% and 5%, respectively; the average consumption per larva within two hours was 0.4, 0.6, 1.3, 0.6, 0.3 and 0.1 prey, respectively. At day 6 of the delayed initial feeding, the feeding rate of all larvae was 0; there was no significant difference in the survival rate at the delayed initial feeding of day 0, day 1 and day 2 but the survivorship decreased abruptly while the delayed feeding lasted more than 3 days. The point of no return (PNR) occurred at 4 days after the larval mouth opened, which indicated that the optimum initial feeding time for the larvae was within 3 days after their mouths opened.