To investigate the effects of salinity on digestive ability and antioxidant capacity in juvenile Lateolabrax maculatus, four salinity levels (0, 10, 20, 30) were set in this study. After 30 days’ culture, tissue samples were collected and preserved in liquid nitrogen for later use. According to the manufacturer’s instructions, the activities of pepsin (PPS), amylase (AMS), lipase (LPS), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were measured using kit analysis. The results showed that the PPS activity was higher at salinity 0 than at higher salinities, and there were significant differences among different salinity groups. In the same salinity group, the enzyme activity of peptic cathepsin was higher than that of pyloric caecum and intestinal tract (Fig. 1). With the increase of salinity, the activity of AMS in gastric tissue decreased gradually, while the activity of AMS in pyloric caecum and intestinal tract increased gradually (Fig. 2). In gastric tissues, LPS at salinity 0 had a high activity, LPS at salinity 10 had the lowest activity, enzyme activity increased at salinity 20 and salinity 30 gradually, reaching the maximum at salinity 30, and there was significant difference among groups (P < 0.05); in pyloric caecum, the activity of LPS increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of salinity; in intestinal tissue, there was no significant difference in LPS activity between salinity 0 and salinity 10 group (P > 0.05), and then gradually increased (Fig.3). The highest activities of SOD and CAT in liver were found in group salinity 0 and the other three groups showed similar values (Fig. 4); the activities of SOD and CAT in muscle increased with salinity increase as a whole (Fig. 5). MDA and T-AOC were higher in liver at salinity 30 and 0 (Fig. 6), while in muscle, MDA content reached a higher value at salinity 10 and then increased with higher salinities (P < 0.05), but the difference was not significant (P > 0.05); T-AOC content also reached the highest value at salinity 10 and decreased in other groups (Fig. 7). The results show that different digestive enzymes need different salinity conditions for their proper functiopns in juvenile L. maculatus, and that the changes of salinity may induce the response of antioxidant system.