Tetracycline antibiotics (TCs) are widely used all over the world in recent decades. TCs are a family used as broadspectrum antibiotics and animal veterinary drugs. Among the TCs, tetracycline (TC) is the most use. Due to the rapid development of antibiotics industry, the dosage standards of TC are not yet clearly defined in most countries and regions. TC is hard to degrade in living organisms and can even be converted to more toxic substances. The overuse and wanton discharge of TC, also caused serious pollution of groundwater. This article attempts to summarize the latest knowledge on the nature, sources, pollution status, the impact on water environment toxicity of TC respectively. Meanwhile, there are many technologies to remove TC. This paper mainly included 12 kinds of degradation methods, including photodegradation, microbial removal, adsorption, electrochemical and sludge digestion. This review will provide a reference for the study of the basic properties and removal methods of TC.