Alien species is one of the most serious threats causing the decline and extinction of native anuran populations. Procambarus clarkiion is an exotic invader which can predate egg and tadpoles of anuran in Lishui, Zhejiang, south China. Under laboratory conditions, the eggs and tadpoles of Pelophylax nigromaculatus were successively exposed to different predation risk from P. clarkiion including none (no-predator), caged for two days (transient-predator) and caged for all days (permanent-predator). We measured the phenotype of hatchlings, morphological characteristics, swimming performance and activity level of tadpoles, age and size at metamorphosis, body size and jumping performance of juveniles in P. nigromaculatus. We aimed to assess the comprehensive effects of the predator P. clarkiion on the growth and development, locomotor performance and behavior of P. nigromaculatus larvas. One-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test indicated that body length, tail fin length, and tail muscle width of the hatchlings in permanent-predator treatment were significantly shorter than those tadpoles in the no- and transient-predator treatments. Moreover, the tadpoles in no-predator groups were larger than those in the transient-predator treatments, although their tail fin phenotypes were almost similar. The tadpoles in the permanent-predator treatments can swim averagely longer and quicker than those in the no- and transient-predator treatments, but their sprint speed swimming were almost alike. There were no significant differences for the body length, tail length, tail fin height, tail muscle height of the tadpoles among groups. The snout-vent length and body mass of the P. nigromaculatus juveniles in the permanent-predator treatments were significantly longer than ones of the latter two treatments, but the risk of predation had no significant effect on the metamorphosis time and jump distances. Two-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test indicated that testing time, predator and their interactions significantly affected the activity state of the tadpoles. There were lesser active tadpoles in permanent-predator treatments than those in no- and transient-predator treatments. The tadpoles in no-risk treatments were more active than those in the transient-predator treatments during the early stage of the experiment, while the results were reverse in the final stage of the experiment. The linear-regression analysis revealed that there were no significant correlation between testing time and activity level of the transient-predator tadpoles, but activity frequency of permanent-predator tadpoles were significantly and positively correlated with testing time. The study demonstrates that P. nigromaculatus tadpoles can sense predation risk from invasive predator crayfish. The predator risk induce the smaller hatchlings and lower activity level of tadpoles, but the negative effects can be offset by the compensation growth of tadpoles during the subsequent development. Therefore, it does not affect the phenotype and locomotor performance of juvenile entering the terrestrial habitats.