To clarify the effect of tide on the fish larvae and juvenile community, fish larvae and juveniles were collected monthly at 2 stations (St.1:31°35.500'N,121°20.004'E; St.2:31°33.500'N,121°20.000'E) on the spring tide between May 2017 and April 2018. Sampling was conducted in North-South longitudinal section of the south branch of Yangtze River estuary, using a larval net (1.3m mouth-diameter, 0.5mm mesh). Moreover, according to the tidal changes (4 flood tides, 4 ebb tides), each haul was made parallel to the surface layer and middle layer. A total of 51 783 fish larvae and juveniles were collected, representing 32 species from 11 families. The five dominant species was Hemiculter bleekeri(87.05% of the total),Carassius auratus(3.45% in total of the fish), Culteral burnus(3.16% in total of the fish), Rhinogobius giurinus(2.16% in total of the fish), Repomucenus olidus(0.01% in total of the fish). The pre-flexion stage was the dominant stage (95.21% in total of the fish), followed by flexion stage (4.54% in total of the fish), post-flexion stage (0.12% in total of the fish), juvenile stage(0.12% in total of the fish) and yolk-sac larval stage(0.01% in total of the fish). The results of average density analysis showed that the monthly average density and catches were affected by the flood tide and ebb tide to a certain extent:average density of flood tide is larger than that of the ebb tide. The five dominant species were affected by the changes of tide besides the Rhinogobius giurinus, the body length distribution of other four species both showed higher at nighttime than daytime, and the annual distribution of five dominant species showed obvious monthly changes. The developmental stage analysis showed that:except for the pre-flexion stage, the flexion stage of the five dominant species at flood tide were higher than those at the ebb tide, while the post-flexion stage in ebb tide were lower than those at flood tide. The results of ecological types analysis showed that the total fish collection of freshwater, brackish water and offshore at flood tide were greater than that those at ebb tide. The correlation analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between dissolved oxygen concentration, temperature and average density, but no significant correlation between salinity and average density.