Dissolved oxygen is one of the most important factors affecting the fish growth and metabolism. Some fish exposition to hypoxia and super-saturated dissolved oxygen may result in oxidative stress evidenced by variation in activities of antioxidant enzymes. Mugil cephalus has higher economic value, and it has not been reported that there are the effects of different dissolved oxygen variation on the growth, energy metabolism and oxidative stress. In order to find the relationship and consequences, experiments were carried out according to experimental ecology, bioenergetics and physiology methods. The experiments were conducted under five modes of variation of different dissolved oxygen, i. e. N(7. 0 mg/L), N-L(7. 0→1. 5 mg/L), S-N(14. 0→1. 5 mg/L), S-N-L(14. 0→7. 0→1. 5 mg/L), and S(14. 0 mg/L)treatments, respectively. The healthful individuals(16. 07 ± 0. 11)g in mean initial total weight were cultivated for 56 days in the cycling water installation. The specific growth rate, oxidative stress indicators were measured including the content of LD, SOD, T-AOC, ASOR, MDA, T-GSH, GSSG, and GSH in the plasma, muscle, liver and gill. Then the healthful individuals(31. 47 ± 1. 44)g in mean final total weight were selected and the oxygen consumption rate, ammonia excretion rate, O: N ratios were measured. The results showed that five modes of variation of different dissolved oxygen had a significant effect on the growth of mullet. The SGR of mullet in the N, S and S-N treatments were significantly higher than in N-L and S-N-L treatments. The ammonia excretion rate and O: N ratios in S treatment was the highest compared to the other treatments. Five modes had a great influence on the oxidative stress indicators. The study found out that liver was the most important organ to respond to the oxidative stress. The metabolic rate decreased in the modes containing the hypoxia stage, moreover, the mullets need to consume more material and energy involved in the oxidative stress which caused decline of the growth rate. The content of T-GSH was negative correlation to the oxidative stress, and it seems that the glutathione system plays an important adaptive role.