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Various shellfish samples were collected from seven coastal areas of Fujian, China, and their arsenic species characteristics were investigated. The results showed that there are six different arsenic species, i.e. arsenite, arsenate, dimethylarsinic acid, arsenobetaine, 5-deoxy-5-dimethylarsinoyl-β-ribofuranose and one unknown arsenic compound As1, existing in shellfish. Among 40 samples, arsenite was detected in 18 shellfish samples at the concentration range of 5–41 ng/g wet weight, and the later five arsenic species were detected in all shellfish samples at the concentration range of 0.01–0.07, 0.01–0.12, 0.13–1.52, 0.03–0.48 and 0.01–0.23 μg/g wet weight, respectively. The experimental results also revealed that the arsenic species characteristics in shellfish were dependent on both the shellfish species and sampling sites. For all 40 shellfish samples, arsenobetaine was the predominant species, its concentration accounted for 25–86% of total concentration of arsenic species; 5-deoxy-5-dimethylarsinoyl-β-ribofuranose was the subdominant arsenic species, its concentration accounted for 4–46% of total concentration of arsenic species. Our results provided basis for scientifically evaluating the arsenic uptake risk of shellfish samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]