We collected different geography groups of mandarin fish () from the provinces of Hunan, Guangdong, and Jiangsu, and multiplied them by artificial propagation. Twenty-one families of mandarin fish were set up in 4 years. Based on the data of growth traits measured in mandarin fish we used derivative free restricted maximum likelihood to compute the genetic parameters of 3 growth traits-body weight (BW), body length (BL), body height (BH), by mixed animal models. The genetic parameters of mandarin fish on 210th day were estimated by Asreml program. The heritabilities of BW, BL, BH for 210 day-age of Siniperca chutasi were 0.4, 0.45, 0.29. The different genetic variance components of BW, BL, BH, computed by 3 mixed animal models were compared. The high and moderate heritability of growth traits suggested that additive genetic effect of these traits in mandarin fish were high and it was expected to have good genetic gain through individual selection and family selection. The genetic correlations between BW and BL, BW and BH, BL and BH, were 0.96, 0.93, 0.92, respectively. The high and positive genetic correlations between growth traits suggested that selection for improvement in body weight of mandarin fish would result improvement in other two traits. After two generations, the average body weight of F₂ was 7.5% more than F₁. The genetic gain in BW of F₂ was 7.5 g. The average BW of F₃ was 9% more than F₂, and 17.2% more than F₁. The genetic gain in BW of F₃ was 9.75 g. The average BH was 9.9% more than F₁. The genetic gains in BH was 0.22 cm. It was the right way to improve the value of mandarin fish in aquaculture.