The current situation of the development of freshwater fish pretreatment processing industry and development level of freshwater fish pretreatment equipment were briefly described in this manuscript. The development history of mechanical for freshwater fish pretreatment was reviewed. Based on the processing technology of freshwater fish, combining the processing needs of different freshwater fish and freshwater fish products, the main structure composition form and operation mode of existing freshwater fish pretreatment was summarized. The current cutting-edge technology of existing visual recognition and automatic monitoring practical applications in domestic and foreign were included. The research direction combined with China's national conditions of freshwater fish pretreatment equipment was proposed in two aspects, which were automation and intelligence.