Abstract: Malachite green, crystal violet, chloramphenicol and nitrofurans have been widely used to inhibit the growth of microorganisms and to prevent or treat the emergence and spread of bacterial diseases. The above three types of drugs are carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic, which have been banned in many countries. However, due to their advantages of low cost and significant effect, they are still used illegally in the aquaculture process. In order to prevent contaminated products circulating in the food chain and endangering consumer health. Advance analysis of aquatic products is an essential safety protection measure. This paper reviews the analytical methods concerning malachite green, crystal violet, chloramphenicol, nitrofuran and their metabolites residues in aquatic products, describes the application of chromatography, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immu-nochromatography assay, chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay and electrochemical sensors in this field, and systematically summarizes the sample pretreatment procedures, chromatographic conditions and validation results, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each method. The aim of this work is to provide new ideas for monitoring residues and to present a thorough overview of current trends in this field. To be specific, high performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry have low detection limits, yet they require cumbersome pretreatment procedures, expensive instruments and professional labor, which limit the development of this technique. With the development of new nanomaterials, surface-enhance Raman spectroscopy, immunoassay and electrochemical sensors have excellent prospects in assessing fish drug residues, which do not require large instruments, are easy to operate, and can be used for rapid detection in the field, and they will certainly become the effective tools for monitoring illegal fish drugs in aquatic products.