Tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic. This study investigated the effects of TCH at concentrations of 0 (control), 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg/L on the survival, reproduction and population growth of Brachionus calyciflorus by means of life-table experiment. One-way ANOVA showed that TCH concentration had significant effects on life expectancy at hatching, generation time, net reproductive rate and intrinsic rate of population increase of the rotifers (P < 0.05), but did not have a marked effect on proportion of sexual offspring (P > 0.05). Multiple comparison of the least significant difference (LSD) showed that compared to the control, treatments with TCH at 2.5﹣40 mg/L prolonged significantly life expectancy at hatching and generation time by 35%﹣52% and 13%﹣24%, respectively (P < 0.01), and increased net reproductive rate by 17%﹣37% (P < 0.05), while that at 80 mg/L decreased net reproductive rate and intrinsic rate of population increase of the rotifers by 20.35% and 8.69%, respectively (P < 0.05) (Table 1). Regression analysis showed that there were significant dose-effect relationships between TCH concentration (x, mg/L) and life expectancy at hatching (y1), generation time (y2), net reproductive rate (y3) as well as intrinsic rate of population increase of the rotifers (y4), and the relationships could be described as y1 =﹣0.029x2 + 1.843x + 144.669, y2 =﹣0.007x2 + 0.476x + 73.521, y3 =﹣0.003x2 + 0.138x + 19.936 and y4 =﹣1.594 × 10–5x2 + 7.37 × 10–7x + 1.197, respectively (Table 2). When monitoring the ecological effects of lower TCH concentrations, the life expectancy at hatching, the generation time and the net reproductive rate had the same sensitivity, but when monitoring those of higher TCH concentrations, both the net reproduction rate and the intrinsic rate of population increase had the same sensitivity.