Few studies on parasitic scutica-like ciliates (SLCs) influencing larval growth and survival during the seed production of the Japanese scallop, Patinopecten yessoensis have been performed in spite of relatively high magnitude of their infectious damage to the larvae. In the mass seed production of the scallop, SLCs were never infectious during D-larval stage which lasted 6 to 7 days. Indeed, the infection first occurred in 2 to 4 days after first umbo-staged larvae. A regular selection of active larvae in swimming behavior kept larval SLC infection low throughout the culture compared to unselected control (P<0.05) in which all the larvae alive were contained. Higher infection frequencies of the unselected control resulted in lower larval survivals and wider range of larval size distribution that drove larval attachment rate lower. To the worse, the nursery spats from the higher SLC infection exhibited a retarded growth and elevated occurrence of abnormal scallop.