Two feeding trials were conducted to evaluate the soybean meal as a substitute for the fish meal in diet (experiment I), and experimental practical diet and commercial diet (experiment II) for growth of far eastern catfish. In the experiment I, three replicate groups of juveniles (average weight 7.2 g) were fed one of diets containing 0, 10 and 20% soybean meals for 66 days. Survival and final mean weight were not significantly affected by dietary soybean meal levels. No significant differences were observed in feed efficiency, protein efficiency ratio and protein retention of fish fed between 0% (control diet) and 20% soybean meal diets. However, fish fed 10% soybean meal diet showed the lower feed efficiency, protein efficiency ratio and protein retention, and higher daily feed intake compared with fish fed control diet and 20% soybean meal diet. The contents of moisture, crude protein, crude lipid and ash in the whole body were not significantly affected by dietary soybean meal levels. In the experiment II, three replicate groups of juveniles (average weight 7.3 g) were fed either the formulated diet or commercial diet for 66 days. Survival and final mean weight were not significantly different among treatment. Significantly higher feed efficiency, protein efficiency ratio and protein retention, and lower daily feed intake were observed in fish fed experimental practical diet compared with fish fed commercial diet (P<0.05). Proximate compositions of the whole body were not significantly affected by diets. The results of these studies suggest that soybean meal can be used as a substitute for fish meal up to 20% in diet, and the dietary formulation used in the experiment II could be applied to the practical feed for far eastern catfish.