The effect of salinity on survival, growth, food consumption and haemolymph osmolality was determined for the pink shrimp Farfantepenaeus subtilis in a series of independent experiments. The first experiment, shrimp at PL₅₀ were transferred without salinity acclimation from 30‰ to the salinities of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35‰ for 96h. The tolerance of shrimp to abrupt changes in salinity (96h LS₅₀) was estimated. The second experiment, growth and survival of shrimp were analyzed during 75days in the treatments corresponding to the salinities of 5, 15, 25 and 35‰, where the food consumption was measured during four consecutive days. Finally, haemolymph osmolality of juveniles (1.23g±0.26) maintained at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 45‰ for 24h was evaluated. All PL₅₀ transferred from 30‰ to 0‰ died within 24h, while survival after 96h of those transferred to 5 and 10‰ was 96.6 and 86.6%, respectively. PL₅₀ transferred to salinities higher than 15‰ presented no mortality during the test. Based on these results, the lethal salinity (96h LS₅₀) was estimated at 12‰. Final weight of shrimp reared at 25‰ was significantly higher than the other treatments, except for treatment 35‰, which did not differ from shrimp reared in salinity 15‰. Shrimp reared at 5‰ had the lowest weight. Survival of shrimp varied from 48% (15‰) to 65% (35‰), showing higher values at 25 and 35‰, but not differing significantly from 5‰. Shrimp reared at 25 and 35‰ had the highest food consumption values. The isosmotic point estimated from a regression between haemolymph and water osmolality was 377.07mosMkg⁻¹, which is equivalent to salinity 14‰. Results indicate that F. subtilis presents higher growth in salinities higher than its isosmotic point, i.e., at salinities above 25‰.