During a 60 d feeding trial, goldfish (Carassius auratus) measuring 1.66+/-0.02 g by weight and 4.2+/-0.02 mm by length were fed diets containing 23.34%, 26.21%, 29.30%, 32.24% and 42.53% crude protein in Feeds I through V respectively. The four formulated-diets (Feeds I, II, IV and V) contained groundnut oil-cake, wheat bran, soybean meal, fish meal, cod liver oil, vegetable oil and vitamin-mineral mixture with tapioca as binder and a commercially-available diet (Feed III) procured from the market. All the feeds were dispensed twice daily at 4% body weight. Results revealed that the growth (in terms of net weight gain and specific growth rate) and dietary utilisation (in terms of feed conversion ratio, protein retention efficiency and energy retention efficiency) were observed to be significantly greater (p < or = 0.05) in Feed V which contained 42.53% protein followed by Feeds IV, I, II and III, and 7.58%, 6.11%, 6.63%, 7.86% and 7.91% lipid in Feeds I through V, describing clearly the role of a combination of protein and lipid in the diet for growth and feed utilisation. Lowest growth and dietary utilisation was observed in Feed III (the commercial diet). The alkaline and acid phosphatase activities in liver, gill and intestine as also the RNA:DNA ratio in the muscle tissues were greatest in fish fed Feed V, which indicated best growth. It was thus concluded that a protein content of 40-45% in the diet of young goldfish could significantly enhance growth and dietary utilisation.