In order to study the effects of nitrite nitrogen stress on blood biochemical indictors and HSP70 mRNA expression level of Aristichthys nobilis [initial average weight (180.05±0.092) g], 170 individuals of A. nobilis were exposed to water body with nitrite nitrogen concentration of 48.634 mg/L for 96 hours, and then a 96-hour recovery experiment was carried out. Blood and tissues of gill, head kidney, intestines and spleen were sampled at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, 96 h after stress, and at 12, 24, 48, 72, 96 h after recovery. For the stress and recovery experiment process, the results showed serum cortisol and ALT activity significantly increased first, after being stressed for 6 h. Thereafter, serum GLU presented significant increase at 12 h. Whereafter, serum CHOL, TP and TG decreased significantly and T3, AST increased significantly, while serum LDL and HDL decreased significantly at 72 h. For the recovery experiment, A. nobilis were recovered from nitrite nitrogen stress after 96 h. The HSP70 mRNA expression of different tissues showed that head kidney presented the fastest response to nitrite nitrogen stress, then gill, intestine and spleen. For recovering 96 h, HSP70 mRNA expression of head kidney, intestine and spleen returned to normal. The result suggested that nitrite nitrogen affected the protein metabolism, lipid metabolism and glycometabolism of A. nobilis, and also influenced the HSP70 mRNA expression of different tissues. A. nobilis showed rapid response to stress of high concentrations of water nitrite nitrogen after 6 h, so as to regulate physiological metabolism, and improve protection from stress injury and damage.