Temperature is one of the most important abiotic factors in the habitats of ectothermic animals and has been called the 'ecological master factor' for organisms. As ectotherms in bodies of water, fish are often subjected to large diurnal or seasonal changes in temperature, and, thus, they must adapt physiologically to the environmental temperature variation that occur over the course of their life histories. To examine the responses of cutaneous respiration in juvenile southern catfish (Silurus meridionalis Chen) (body mass: (29.15±0.51) g; body length: (15.63±0.08) cm) to chronic temperature acclimation and acute temperature change (increase and decrease temperature) and to test whether the contribution of cutaneous respiration to whole organism routine metabolism varies with chronic and acute thermal changes, the oxygen (O₂) uptake across the skin (MO_2skin) and gills (MO_2gill) of anaesthetized individuals acclimated under three different temperature (10, 20 and 30℃ for 2 weeks) were measured under 10, 20 and 30℃ by self-designed fish MO_2skin respirometer (patent number: 200920127987.7). The total O₂ uptake rate (MO_2total) was calculated accordingly as the sum of MO_2skin and MO_2gill. The cutaneous O₂ uptake, i.e. MO_2skin were (12.83±0.70), (18.20±0.97) and (22.65±2.07) mgO₂·h^-1·kg^-1, respectively, at 10, 20 and 30℃ temperature acclimation groups, which made up 16.4%-19.0% those of total O₂ uptake. The MO_2skin increased more slowly than the MO_2total with the increase of acclimation temperature (P<0.05) thus let to a smaller MO_2skin: MO_2total ratio at higher temperatures. There were significant differences in the MO_2total among all three temperature acclimation groups while only the MO_2skin of 10℃ temperature acclimation group was significantly different from the other two temperature acclimation groups (P<0.05). The MO_2skin of acute temperature rise groups were significantly higher than those of temperature acclimation groups with the same temperature before the acute temperature change (P<0.05), but they were not significantly different from those of temperature acclimation groups with the same temperature after acute temperature change (P>0.05). On the contrary, the MO_2skin of acute temperature fall groups was significantly lower than those of acclimation temperature groups with the same temperature before acute temperature change (P<0.05), they were also not significantly different from those of acclimation temperature groups with the same temperature after acute temperature change (P>0.05). The average Q₁₀ value of MO_2skin was significantly lower than that of MO_2total (P<0.05). The respiratory sensitivity of juvenile southern catfish to acute thermal change as suggested by the average Q₁₀ value of MO_2total was higher than that of chronic temperature acclimation which suggested a metabolic compensation during chronic temperature acclimation. However, there were no significant differences in the average values of Q₁₀ for MO_2skin between acute temperature change groups and temperature acclimation groups (P>0.05). The level of MO_2skin: MO_2total ratio in southern catfish was relatively high compared to many others fish species. It suggested that southern catfish adopted either metabolic compensation or acute stress responses to chronic temperature acclimation or acute temperature change. The cutaneous O₂ uptake was neither a chemical reaction process nor a biological response, but appeared to be a process related to physical perfusion.