AIM: To establish an animal model for studying the development and metastasis of melanoma. METHODS: C57BL/6 mice were used as host to receive melanoma cell transplantation. Three kinds of melanoma cell lines, B16F0, B16F1 and B16F10, cultured to prepare the cell suspensions, were transplanted into the mouse anterior chamber (AC) of the eye. The time of eyeball diabross, time of survival and metastasis of lymph node and lung were observed. RESULTS: The time of eyeball diabross in F10 group was earlier than that in other groups. The time of eyeball diabross was no difference between F0 and F1 groups. Metastasis was developed 18 days after transplantation in F1 and F10 groups, where the tumor cells was found in ipsilateral cervical lymph nodes. The melanoma cells metastasized to lung in all three groups 28 days after transplantation. The survival time in F0 group was longer than F1 and F10 groups. There was no difference in survival times between F1 and F10 group. CONCLUSION: The differences of three kinds of melanoma cell lines in tumor development and metastasis provided the evidence that was useful for choosing suitable animal model further to study the eye melanima.