ASSESSMENT OF ACUTE TOXICITY AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES IN FRESHWATER FISH CATLA CATLA EXPOSED TO ORGANOPHOSPHATE PESTICIDE PHORATE 10% CG
D. Venkateshwarlu Naik, L. Srinivas Naik, S. Jawahar and Dr. M. Jagadish Naik*
ABSTRACT
The present study is to assess the acute toxicity and behavioral alterations of Phorate 10% CG {O, O-diethyl-S-[(ethylthio) methyl] phosphorodithioate}, an organophosphate pesticide on Catla catla. The most common acute toxicity test is acute lethality and LC50 is customary to represent the lethality of a test species in terms of mortality and time. The healthy juveniles of fish C. catla were used for this study. The water quality parameters were in normal range, indicating good water quality for experimentation. The Median lethal concentration values of C. catla for Phorate in static tests for 24, 48, 72 and 96h were 0.81, 0.76, 0.68 and 0.53 mg/L respectively. Zero percent mortality of the fish was observed at the concentration of the toxicant at and below0.54, 0.48 0.24 and 0.30 mg/l for 1, 2, 3 and 4 days. 100 percent mortality of the fish was observed at the concentration of the toxicant at and above 1.60, 1.10, 0.96 and 0.79 mg/l for 1, 2, 3 and 4 days respectively. In the present study, irregular swimming, loss of balance, restlessness, excess secretion of mucous and surfacing activity with gradual decrease in opercular movement was the common observations. There were no deaths and behavioral changes observed in the control group throughout the experiment.
Keywords: Phorate, Catla catla, LC50, Mortality, Behavioral changes.
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