Triploid eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are the cornerstone of oyster culture in Virginia, comprising 80% of cultured oysters in 2009. Triploids are produced predominantly by tetraploid x diploid mating. While these animals are pivotal to triploid production, there is little documentation of their characters, including larval culture of tetraploid crosses, relative to that of diploid and triploid C. virginica. To examine variation in larval traits of tetraploid C. virginica four groups of five pair-mated families each were produced from four tetraploid stocks. All 20 families were reared until settlement. From these four groups two trends for larval growth and survival were evident. Two groups displayed linear growth trends culminating with eye-spot development at 14 and 16 days on average. The two other groups exhibited a growth trend characterized by a slow growth during the first week of rearing and longer time to develop eye-spots, 16 and 20 days on average. The average size (±1 S.D.) of first- eyed larvae among the 20 families was varied, ranging 321±18.5μm to 374±7.0μm. Survival to first- eyed larvae was greater for the two groups with linear growth rates than the two other groups. This study begins a long-term examination of variation in tetraploid characters.