After a very early research stage in the 70's, and a predevelopment stage in the 80's, the Mediterranean finfish mariculture (mainly sea bass sea bream) has boomed in the 90's, reaching about 70,000 t of marketable size fish and 300 million fry in 1997. The main reason for this success was the progress and diversification in hatchery techniques. All based on the use of live prey, these techniques are divided into several categories according to larval density, (intensive, mesocosms and extensive), the quality of the rearing medium (clear water, green water, pseudo green water) and some other criteria. Although perfectible, these techniques are actually quite satisfactory for species diversification in many fields of larviculture, but their choice has to be well documented. In this article, the authors review the conditions of this challenge.