The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of temperature stress on the oxygen and energy metabolism in hepotopancreas of shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. In the present study, the impact of low and high temperature on the superoxide anion(O₂^-· )production, superoxide dismutase(SOD)activity, catalase(CAT)activity and glutathione(GSH)concentration, and the nitric oxide synthase(NOS)activity and the synthesis of nitric oxide(NO)was detected by their corresponding biochemical methods. In addition, the concentration of adenosine triphosphate(ATP)was also examined. The results showed that O₂^-· production could be induced significantly after cold stress at 15 ℃ and heat stress at 31and 35 ℃. SOD activity was showed a similar changing profile with the concentration of O₂^-· after thermal stress between 15 and 31 ℃. Compared with heat stress, CAT activity was enhanced more significantly after cold stress. However, GSH concentration increased significantly after high temperature stress. The NOS activity and NO concentration increased significantly after heat stress. However, ATP concentration increased significantly after both low temperature and high temperature stress, and it returned to the control level after 24 h recovery. Conclusion: Thermal stress could lead to oxygen metabolism disorder in the hepatopancreas of shrimp L. vannamei, which might induce antioxide enzymes response. Our findings suggested that SOD, CAT and GSH might play different roles in shrimp response to thermal stress. Also, NO might play an important role in induction of many signaling pathways to response to thermal stress. In addition, more ATP was produced after cold and heat stress. Our findings indicated that thermal stress lead to oxygen metabolism disorder, which might be due to the temperature stress beyond the oxygen and capacity limited thermal tolerance(OCLTT)of L. vannamei. The disorder of oxygen metabolism might have an important impact on energy metabolism and other physiological activities of L. vannamei.