Temperature and salinity are common and important environmental factors in aquaculture; the fluctuation of these parameters may cause a large amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in organisms, which can be toxic to cells. As such, antioxidant capacity needs to be increased in order to remove excessive ROS and protect against cell damage. The antioxidant system is composed of enzymatic and non-enzymatic components, which play an important role in antagonizing and removing ROS in aquatic fauna; this system includes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). Additionally, malondialdehyde (MDA), one of the products of lipid peroxidation (a reaction related to oxidative stress), is often used as an evaluation index. Palaemon gravieri is a common cheap shrimp in the East China and Southern Yellow seas; there are limited studies on the effects of temperature and salinity on Palaemon gravieri. To understand the effects of water temperature and salinity on Palaemon gravieri, this study investigated the survival rate and antioxidant capacity of Palaemon gravieri under sudden temperature and salinity changes and different heating rates. The sudden change of temperature experiment consisted of one control group (temperature: 22.0 ℃; salinity: 25), four treatment groups (14.0, 18.0, 26.0, and 30.0 ℃; salinity: 25), and three groups for the different heating rate experiments (2.0, 4.0, and 6.0 ℃/d; salinity: 25). The sudden change of salinity experiment consisted of one control group (salinity: 25; temperature: 22 ℃), and four treatment groups (salinity: 15, 20, 30, and 35; temperature: 22.0 ℃). The total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), and the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and malondialdehyde (MDA) activities in the hepatopancreas were detected. The results showed that the survival rate had significantly decreased (P＜0.05) only when the temperature increased from 22.0 to 30.0 ℃. At 96 h, the survival rate was ＜50.00%; however, the sudden change in salinity had no significant effect on the survival rate. In the different temperature rise experiments, there was no significant difference in survival rate between the 4.0 ℃/d group and the other two groups; however, there was a significant difference in survival rate between the 2.0 and 6.0 ℃/d groups (P＜0.05), and the half survival temperature was 31.6 ℃ based on the change in the 2.0 ℃/d survival rate. The activities of the three antioxidant enzymes and the MDA content was observed to gradually rise, and this accelerated with an increase to the heating rate. The change of temperature rising rate was found to not affect the maximum SOD and CAT during heating, while the maximum T-AOC and MDA increase with the heating rate. In the sudden change of temperature experiment, the activities of three antioxidant enzymes and the MDA content had initially increased, then decreased to the control level; the exception to this was T-SOD, which did not decrease to the control level at 96 h. In the sudden change of salinity experiment, the T-SOD and CAT activities initially decreased, then increased, and finally decreased. By contrast, the activity of T-AOC and the MDA content initially increased, then decreased; at 96 h, the MDA content was lower than that of the control group. These results indicate that changes in temperature and salinity may cause significant changes in the antioxidant capacity in the body. In addition, changes in temperature had a significant effect on the shrimp survival rate compared to salinity; the effect of temperature increase was more significant than that of temperature decrease. This study advances research on the stress resistance of shrimp and the culturing of Palaemon gravieri.