An 80‐day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the influence of different short‐term fasting and re‐feeding strategies on growth and physiological responses in yellowfin seabream, Acanthopagrus latus (2.4 ± 0.2 g) fingerlings. The fish were subjected to four different feeding regimes, and the control group fed four times daily to apparent satiation throughout the whole feeding period, while the other three groups were deprived for 2, 4 and 8 days followed by 8, 16 or 32 days of re‐feeding (F2R8, F4R16 and F8R32, respectively) in repeated cycles for 80 days. The fish in the control and F2R8 groups had the highest and the lowest total length, respectively (p < .05). Moreover, fish exposed to F4R16 had the highest hepatosomatic indices, while control fish had the lowest hepatosomatic indices (p < .05). Fish in the F2R8 group relatively had higher catalase and glutathione‐S‐transferase activities than other groups (p < .05). Furthermore, total protease, α‐amylase and alkaline phosphatase activities in the F4R16 and F8R32 were higher than the F2R4 and control groups (p < .05). Overall, this study showed that compensatory growth in weight and length and digestive enzyme activities were observed in the F4R16 and F8R32; however, the increase in the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the F8R32 group indicated that oxidative stress remained after 80 days of re‐feeding in the liver.

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