The positive effects of citric acid (CA) on aquaculture species have been reported. However, extensive application of CA needs a comprehensive understanding of its nutritional functions. A 9-week feeding trial was conducted to determine the effect of dietary CA on growth performance, tissue mineral content, intestinal enzyme activities and oxidative status of large yellow croaker Larimichthys crocea fed high plant protein diets. Six isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets were formulated and fed to triplicated groups of fish. A high fish meal diet formulated with 45% fish meal and 11.5% soybean meal was set as the positive control diet, while a high plant protein diet formulated with 31.50% fish meal and 30.63% soybean meal was used as the negative control diet. The other four diets were supplemented with 0.4%, 0.8%, 1.6% and 3.0% of CA into the negative control diet, respectively. The results showed that the specific growth rate, feed efficiency, protein and phosphorus retention, phosphorus and zinc concentrations in whole body and intestine, activities of the leucine-aminopeptidase, alkaline phosphatase and Na + , K + -ATPase were significantly reduced after soybean meal replacement and recovered by dietary CA supplementation ( P P P Statement of relevance: This study is not a test of commercial aquaculture.