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Increased hazard of arsenic toxicity at many provinces of India causing extensive contamination of their wetlands. To illustrate the consequences of the arsenic menace on the aquatic fauna, a nutritionally important freshwater catfish Clarias batrachus (Linn.) was subjected to the stress of sublethal concentration (1 mg/L; 5% of 96-h LC50 value) of sodium meta-arsenite. The alterations induced by the arsenic salt on certain biomolecules (proteins, free amino acids (FAA), and protease activities) in five tissue components (muscle, liver, brain skin, and gills) of the fish using biochemical techniques were estimated. Significant ( p < 0.01) decrease in the concentration of proteins in all the tissues (19.74-44.84% in muscles; 3.17-49.39% in liver; 10.05-36.16% in brain; 12.62-52.01% in skin and 7.34-61.69% in gills), and significant ( p < 0.01) increase in FAA (6.84-269.89% in muscles; 125.89-358.03% in liver; 1.07-152.90% in brain; 29.31-401.62% in skin and 38.53-165.07% in gills), and protease activities (43.59-183.33% in muscles; 19.52-131.90% in liver; 8.85-46.72% in brain; 33.33-261.53% in skin and 25.39-50.79% in gills) of the exposed fish were observed. This increase in amino acids and enzyme activity point out toward breakdown of protein leading to their depletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]