Yellow croaker growth from the advanced fry to fingerling stages was compared using fresh fish and manufactured feed rations. Fresh fish was fed in a ground, paste form. A manufactured starter feed was fed in No. 2 crumble form. Croaker fry were cultured in 2.25-m3 cages at a density of 2,500 fish per cage. Yellow croaker fry grew from an average weight of 0.67 g to 3.4 g and 3.2 g, respectively, on the fresh fish paste and manufactured feed in 45 days. Croaker had difficulty ingesting the crumble feed because of the small particle size. Observations suggest an optimal feeding regime of two weeks on crumble feeds, followed by extruded pellets beginning at fish size 0.7 g.