Abstract: Acute salinity stress on Terapon jarbua caught from local sea area at the Donghai Island in south Guangdong Province were carried out at Marine Research Centre in Donghai Island in Oct.2011.A groups of salinity gradient of 0,5,10,20,30,40,50,55,60,and 65 were designed to assess salinity stress effect using the survival rate,survival time,water absorption and dehydration rates,as well as the food intake as key assessment indicator at the water temperature of 26.0~29.5℃,while the salinity in control group was set as 30.The results showed that,under the salinity of 5~40 (named the treatment 5~40,the same as below), the survival time span of Terapon jarbua was more than 72 h.In the treatment 65,the survival rate was 30% in 2 h,and decreased to 0% in 4 h.In the treatment 60,the survival rate was 36.7% in 24 h and 30% in 48h.In the treatment 55,the survival rate was 53.3% in 24 h and 50% in 48h.In the treatment 50,the survival rate was 90.0% in 24 h.In the treatment 0,the survival rate was 83.3% in 24 h.After being restored back to the original salinity (30) and continuous observed for 48 h after 72 h,the survival rate fell to 81%.The average death time span in the treatment 65 was less than any other treatments.The extreme salinity stress on the net weight and the dehydration rate of T.jarbua were measured,which was 10.4% in 1 h and 12.7% in 2 h in the treatment 65.In the treatment 60,the dehydration rate was 12.6% in 2 h.In the treatment 5,the water absorption rate was 2.4% in 2 h,1% in 8 h,and 0.1% in 24 h,respectively.In the treatment 0,the water absorption rate was 6.5% in 2 h,13.3% in 8 h,10.4% in 24 h,respectively.The food intake of all of the survive fishes were normal at 24 h after the recovery experiment.The results above indicated the suitable salinity for survival and food intake of T.jarbua was 5~40.