The milkfish (Chanos chanos Forsskål, 1775) is a euryhaline fish widely distributed in tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific waters. It is unique in having in the cephalic region adipose eyelid tissue that begins to develop in the larval stage and is completely formed by the juvenile stage. The formation of the adipose eyelids coincides with the onset of active swimming ability. Larval and juvenile milkfish have different dietary modes and habitats. This study was aimed to investigate ontogenetic changes in color perception ability with the use of microspectrophotometry (MSP). Larval milkfish had rod cells and red, green, blue, and violet cone cells, while Juvenile milkfish lost the violet cone cells, and the blue cones shifted to shorter wavelengths. Histological sections showed the presence of cone cells of the single type (but no double or twin types) in the retina, which implies that the milkfish may not have polarized vision.