Identifying the main amine-producing bacteria (APB) in fermented foods is the key to controlling the biogenic amines (BAs) content. This study investigated the BAs contents and bacterial profiles in fourteen Chinese fermented mandarin fish (Chouguiyu). The orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis was used to explore the potential relationship between bacteria and BAs profiles. Identification of unclassified APB and verification of amine-producing capacity by the culture-dependent method. The results show that the total BA contents of Chouguiyu were in the range of 81.9–860 mg/kg-1. The predominant BAs in Chouguiyu were putrescine, cadaverine, histamine and tyramine. Three bacterial species (Lactobacillus sakei, unclassified Enterobacteriaceae, Morganella psychrotolerans) were closely related to BAs production. The nucleotide sequence comparison showed that Citrobacter sp. was 100 % identical to the unclassified Enterobacteriaceae.