The quantification of prey requirements for larval fish is essential to understand how environmental factors act to restrict suitable habitats and recruitment success in marine fish. Theeffect of prey concentration on ingestion rates of the European sardine Sardina pilchardus wasestimated for larvae through 50 d post-hatch (dph) under controlled laboratory conditions at 15°C.Prey were nauplii and copepodites of the calanoid copepod Acartia grani, which were provided tolarvae at 3 concentrations (0.5, 2 and 6 nauplii ml−1 and 0.1, 0.5 and 1 copepodites ml−1). Larvaewere not able to capture copepod nauplii at the beginning of exogenous feeding, suggesting thatearly larvae depend on smaller prey types and/or less mobile prey than copepods. The mean sizeof prey found in the guts of sardine larvae increased from 145 to 348 μm for larvae of total lengthincreasing from 6 to 18 mm, respectively. Maximum ingestion rates (232 ± 8.0 μg C larva−1 h−1)were reached at the highest prey concentration diet for individuals >40 dph (1500 to 2500 μg Cdry weight). These feeding rates are higher than values previously reported for the larvae of smallpelagic fish. The inability of sardine larvae to feed at low prey concentrations, particularly duringthe first weeks of life, suggests that this species relies on and is adapted to forage within denseprey patches. Given this feeding strategy, bottom-up processes causing food limitation maystrongly impact the survival and growth of sardine larvae.