Abstract: Cadmium (Cd) pollution continues to be a global problem. Early life stages of fish appear to be especially susceptible to this form of pollution. The fish Heteropneustes fossilis is an useful indicator species for freshwater pollution. Investigations were carried out on acute (96 h) and Chronic (21 day) mortality rate, accumulation of toxicant and growth of fish larvae under Cd exposure. Ten day old H. fossilis larvae were exposed to graded series of concentrations of Cd under static-renewal test conditions. Present results indicated that H. fossilis larvae were very sensitive even to low concentration of Cd. The mean NOEC, LOEC and LC50 values for survival were 500, 750 and 1921 μg L-1 for acute (96 h) and 90, 125 and 382 μg L-1 for chronic (21 day) exposure, respectively, while the mean NOEC, LOEC and IC25 values for growth were 60, 90 and 125 μg L-1 after 21 days of exposure, respectively. H. fossilis larvae rapidly bioaccumulated with Cd during prolonged period (21 days) of exposure. Cd accumulation in the larvae reached the level of 62.53 μg g-1 after 21 day of exposure, representing a two fold increase over the use of lowest test concentration of 30 μg L-1 in their exposure media. Also, the Cd accumulation in larvae was time and concentration dependent.