Abstract: Cadmium is a heavy metal which widely and long- term exist in the aquatic environment. Cadmium have attracted considerable attention in recent years because of it's mutagenicity,teratogenicity and carcinogenicity. In this paper,the sources and pollution status of cadmium were summarized. The accumulation process,metabolism process and toxic effect of cadmium in the bodies of aquatic animals were also summarized at the levels of physiology,enzyme biochemistry and molecular biology,respectively.This paper also briefly described the oxidative stress,lipid peroxidation,histopathological damages of organisms of aquatic animals after exposing to cadmium.The purposes of this paper were to provide a brief summary on the research advances in toxic effect of cadmium on aquatic animals,to give a useful reference for further study on this field,and to provide theoretical basis for controlling the cadmium pollution and supplying human people with safer aquatic products.