An acute exposure experiment of copper on Pampus argenteus was carried out in a static biological test method.The abnormal rates of micronucleus and nucleus in peripheral blood cell, and the activities of antioxidant enzymes(SOD, CAT, GPX)in liver were determined under different copper concentrations.The results showed that the 48 h and 96 h median lethal concentrations of copper were 0.835 mg/L and 0.543 mg/L respectively, and the safe concentration of the metal was 0.054 mg/L.Copper was a drastic toxicant of Pampus argenteus, which indicated obvious dosage-effect relations with micronucleus rates and nuclear abnormal rates.Nuclear anomalies rates were generally higher than the micronucleus rates under the same concentration of copper;Activities of SOD, CAT and GPX changed greatly in the test groups which represented a tendency as increasing firstly and then decreasing from low concentration to high concentration.Antioxidant enzyme activity indicated parabolic dosage-effect relations.The changes of micronucleus rates, nuclear abnormal rates and the antioxidant enzyme activities(SOD, CAT, GPX)indicated the damage degree of Pampus argenteus by Cu²⁺.The SOD can also sensitively indicate early copper pollution of low concentration.