Abstract: Tilapia, as an important aquaculture species, has poor tolerance to cold, which severely restrains the yield of this species. Therefore, the mechanism of cold injury to tilapia has been studied from different angles in order to solve this problem. The paper summarizes the factors which affect the cold resistance of tilapia such as diet, environment and physiological conditions of the fish, reviews its cold injury including macroscopic physiological alternation and microscopic changes in the levels of cell and molecular. Moreover, it introduces the effect of low temperature on tilapia as well as relevant studies, and discusses their significant inspiration.