Abstract: Icefishes (Salangidae) originated in the Chinese Yellow Sea, and are distributed in eastern Asia. Fifteen out of the 17 global icefish species live in China's coastal area, outflow rivers and estuaries, among which six are endemic to China. The endemic icefishes include Neosalanx oligodontis, N. taihuensis, N. pseudotaihuensis, N. tangkahkeii, Hemisalanx brachyrostralis, and Salanx cuvieri. Among all the rivers that flow into the South China Sea, East Sea and Yellow Sea, the Yangtze River has been the most important one for this family, where 10 species live, including five species of freshwater icefishes. Icefishes have been appreciated as a highly nutritious food, and therefore have been a major economic resource in the Yangtze River basin. Icefishes have a wide range of food choices  among species, but are very sensitive to their environments,and they develop quickly, with short life cycles, with discrete generations, high fecundity, and wide population fluctuations, and therefore, they are typical r-strategy species. However, due to habitat destruction (wetland reclamation), and fragmentation (dyking), over fishing, and environmental pollution, icefish biodiversity have been declining, and some species have even become vulnerable to extinction. Meanwhile, in the past decade, a few species have been widely introduced into large lakes and reservoirs in China, and have caused problems in the recipient freshwater ecosystem. Based on reviewing the current understanding of their biology, ecology and biodiversity, we present strategies for icefish conservation, and call for an evaluation of the current threats to their biodiversity, as well as of the ecological consequences of icefish introduction, and for strengthening of basic studies on ecology and biodiversity conservation of icefish.