Objective To establish a swimming endurance system, excavating new indexes evaluating the swim capacity in mice and detecting the effects of HONGJINGTIAN (HJT) capsule on the swimming capacity in mice. Methods Combining video capture technology with image analysis technology into the Exhaustive swimming test, this system would automatically collect and objectively analyze the data when the swimming behavior perform synchronously in mice. A series of indexes would be calculated, such as Exhaustive time, First sink time, Total sink time, Sink frequency, Continuous sink time. Furthermore, the classical anti-fatigue herb named HJT will use to detect the stability and reliability of this swimming endurance system. Results The data showed high correlation between the computer and manual record (r>0.95), indicating high stability and reliability of the swimming endurance system. The continuous sink time (CST) have been proved out high correlation with Exhaustive time(ET) (r=0.974), while the correlation of others indexes less than 0.9. The mice treated with HJT by intragastric administration had showed significantly increase in the First sink time (FST) and the Continuous sink time (CST) compared with the control group. Conclusions The results showed that the system could assess swimming capacity objectively, precisely and sensitively in mice. In addition, this system realized integrating video capture, data analysis and data output together automatically. Besides, a new index-CST was found to be high correlation with ET. This system turn out to be high automatically and intelligently, and provide a reliable system to screen the potential anti-fatigue drugs.