The growth and development of teleost were more or less directly affected by the environmental factors. Salinity is one of the important ecological factors. The influence of salinity on the survival and growth of marine fish has been demonstrated in many studies. However, distinct results were displayed due to the different abilities of tolerance to salinity among fish species. The milkfish (Chanos), which has a nice marine habitat and an efficient osmoregulation, is widely distributed throughout tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific. This species occurs naturally and is commercially cultured in fresh, brackish, and oceanic waters as well as in hypersaline lagoons. In the present study, the influences of salinity stress on the survival and growth of milkfish juveniles were assessed and the effects of morphometric attributes on body weight were also evaluated. Juveniles of milkfish [mean weight and total length: 0.215±0.083g; 2.850±0.356cm, respectively] were reared at 0 (fresh water), 10, 20, 27 (sea water) and 35 without acclimation, in triplicate, for 30 d cultivation. The survival rate was recorded and the body weight and morphometric attributes of each individual were measured. Results showed, the lowest survival rate was founded at salinity 0 group (73.33%) when compared with other groups (>90%). The juvenile stage is a special stage during the life history of fish, the juvenile developed not as well as the adults, and cannot adapt to the short-term drastic changes of external osmolality, which may be one of the reasons of the high mortality rate at salinity 0 group. On the other hand, however, the highest rates of weight gain rate (573.94±231.58)% and specific-growth rate (6.23% were obtained at salinity 0 group (P<0.01). Meanwhile, there was no significantly difference among other groups (>0.05). The higher weight gain rate and specific-growth rate were also found in the intermediary groups with salinity 20 and 27. It has been suggested that the marine fish often has a better growth rate in water with lower salinity for the reason of fish spending less energy on osmoregulation in such conditions. Although it has not been reported that milkfish require a fresh water environment for any part of its life cycle, it did showed well growth performance at fresh water in many studies. Furthermore, recent studies indicated that the true proportion of energetic cost of osmoregulation remains under debate as thought before. The total length (x₅), postorbital length of head (x₈), caudal peduncle height () were measured by QCapture Pro 6.0 software after the cultivation. The correlation analysis, path analysis and determination coefficients were calculated by SPSS 13.0 software. Significant differences (P<0.01) were found in all correlation coefficients between each morphometric attributes and the weight. The results of path analysis showed that the traits which had the strongest effect on body weight were total length, body length and body height, and the direct effects of morphometric attributes on body weight were different at salinity stress. The analysis of determinant coefficients revealed that the determinant coefficient of body length was the largest (0.94930) in the salinity 0 group. For salinity 10 group, the determinant coefficients of total length and body height were larger compared with other traits, among which total length had a predominant determinative effect (0.33841). For salinity 20 group, the determinant coefficients of total length, body length, and body height were larger, among which body length had a predominant determinative effect (12.15845). For salinity 27 group, the determinant coefficient of total length was the largest (=0.89838). For salinity 35 group, the determinant coefficients of body length, eye diameter, snout length, and body height were larger, among which body length had a predominant determinative effect (0.32091). In addition, the best multiple linear regression equations were established at salinity stress, which will be helpful to the cultivation of milkfish.