The increasing demands for cleaner fish in salmon and trout farming have resulted in intensified production of ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta) juveniles. Understanding ontogeny, feeding biology, and nutrient requirements of this species is essential to provide appropriate feeds to support fish performance and improve the efficiency of wrasse juvenile production. Farming of ballan wrasse has been hampered by big variations in growth rates, high prevalence of skeletal deformities and other welfare related pathologies. It is known that the larval period has fast growth rates to obtain larger-sized bodies which have higher chances of survival. The growth rates then reduce in the juvenile stage. Only few studies report growth rates of the larval and juvenile wrasse. Furthermore, these studies do not give a complete picture of how the growth rates vary according to the developmental stages of the fish. There is one report decribing the development of the skeletal system in the early stages (15 – 61 dph) of ballan wrasse. Although the head skeletal system seems to befully developed at 0.4 – 0.5 g, this structure will still change along with the increase in body weight afterwards. Understanding how minerals related to bone formation vary through early life stage, is a fundamental step in studying mineral requirements and, thus, allows production of appropriate feeds to minimize the incidence of skeletal deformities in commercial wrasse production. This presentation provides an overview of growth rates and mineral composition of wrasse from 0.1 to 50 g, and anatomy of the head skeletal system from 0.9 to 15 g wrasse. This work is an attempt to fill some of the major gaps in the knowledge of growth rate, bone development, and body composition at different ontogenetic stages of ballan wrasse.