Extruded soybean meal (ESBM) showed increased digestibility of crude protein, amino acids and fat, better oil retention capacities, attenuated anti‐nutrient factor effects and improved its nutritive value compared with raw soybean meal, indicating a promising application prospects for ESBM in fish culture. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of substituting fishmeal with ESBM on growth performance, hepatic antioxidant capacity and the resistance to hypoxia stress on juvenile Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma). Five hundred and forty fish were randomly assigned to six groups fed with iso‐nitrogenous and iso‐energetic diets with ESBM for replacement of 0% (control), 10% (G1), 20% (G2), 30% (G3), 40% (G4) and 50% (G5) fishmeal. After an 81‐day feeding trial, groups fed ESBM substituted diets (G2 to G5) showed no significant differences in survival rates, final body weights, weight gain rates, feed conversion ratios, specific growth rates, hepatosomatic indexes and condition factors with the control group (G0), reflecting normal food intake and growth performance. The hepatic enzyme activities of total antioxidant capacity, catalase and superoxide dismutase were not affected by ESBM substituted diets, showing no harmful effects on ROS eliminating abilities. Hepatic HSP70 expression levels had increased 1.3 times for G5 group, reflecting a less tolerance to hypoxia for fish fed diets with high substituting level of ESBM. In conclusion, replacing, despite 50%, fishmeal with ESBM in diets had no detrimental effects on growth performance and hepatic enzyme activities, but lowering the hypoxia tolerance of juvenile Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma).