Two experiments were carried out at Instituto de Acuicultura de Los Llanos/Universidad de Los Llanos (Villavicencio, Colômbia) to evaluate first feeding influence on yamú larval rearing. In the first experiment, the following prey types were tested to first feeding for yamú larvae during 24 hours: Artemia sp. nauplii, wild zooplankton and pirapitinga (Piaractus brachypomus) larvae. In the control yamú larvae were subjected to starvation. Pirapitinga larva was the prey item that offered the best results for weight and total length gain (p < 0.05). In the second experiment, yamú larvae performance was compared when stocked into fertilized ponds during 15 days either at the onset feeding or after first feeding with pirapitinga larvae prey item. Survival rate was lower in the larvae that were stocked into rearing ponds at the onset of feeding (13.4%) when compared to survival of yamú larvae that were stocked after receiving pirapitinga larvae (74.1%). These results indicate that the use of pirapitinga larvae at first feeding increases performance of yamú larval rearing.