This study aimed to assess the growth and energy partitioning in early juvenile Malabar red snapper. Quadruplets groups of fish (initial weight 57.8g fish-1) were fed two isonitrogenous diets with high fat (HF: 15.2g/100g DM) or low fat (LF: 6.6g/100g DM) content and at different feeding levels (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) apparent satiation for 56 days. At 100% feeding level, a higher body weight gain of 53.4g versus 44.4g was observed for snapper-fed HF compared to LF. Higher efficiency of energy for growth (kg) at 0.67 versus 0.50 was also estimated for diet HF than LF, indicating a protein-sparing effect from increased dietary lipid. By extrapolating to zero energy retention, the maintenance energy requirement was 78 kJ kg-0.8 d-1. This understanding of feed nutrient and energy utilisation efficiency can contribute to the development of optimized and cost-effective feeds for Malabar red snapper.