A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary lipid level on darkbarbel catfish (Pelteobagrus vachelli) larvae during ontogeny with regard to growth, survival and lipid utilization. Larvae were fed, from mouth opening to 20 days after hatching (DAH), with five isonitrogenous microdiets containing different lipid levels (58, 74, 111, 151 and 199 g kg^− 1 diet). Live prey (newly hatched Artemia, unenriched) was used as the control diet. The activities of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), hepatic lipase (HL), pancreatic lipase (PL) and LPL gene expression at 3 DAH (mouth opening), 6 DAH, 11 DAH and 20 DAH were examined. The results showed that dietary lipid significantly affected survival and growth of darkbarbel catfish larvae. At the end of the feeding trial, larvae fed diets containing 111 to 151 g lipid kg^− 1 had significantly higher survival. Specific growth rate (SGR) of larvae fed the diet containing the highest dietary lipid (199 g kg^− 1) was significantly (P < 0.05) lower while no significant differences were observed among other groups fed formulated diets. LPL mRNA level generally increased first with increasing dietary lipid levels and then reached a plateau at different sampling ages. A similar pattern was observed for LPL activity only at 6 DAH and 20 DAH. High dietary lipid increased HL activity at 20 DAH. At 6 DAH, highest PL activity was observed at 199 g lipid kg^− 1 diet. Higher dietary lipid resulted in earlier elevated activities of LPL, PL and HL. The specific activities of the above three enzymes and LPL mRNA expression were detected at mouth opening and were significantly influenced by age. The activities of these enzymes increased first and then decreased or reached a plateau during development. The results suggest that dietary lipid could modify lipid utilization during ontogeny of darkbarbel catfish larvae.