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Research & Reviews : Journal of Ecology

Effect of copper sulfate on the survival of guppy fish (Poecilia reticulata) fingerlings

  1. Syed Fatima Qadri
  2. H.N. Sarjan

Abstract

The contamination of aquatic ecosystems by industrial and agrochemicals is adversely impacting the natural fauna and flora. Regarding this issue, the present study was undertaken to investigate the toxic effects of copper sulfate (CuSO4) on fingerlings of Poecilia reticulata (Guppy fish). The fingerlings were exposed to different concentrations of CuSO4 over a period of 5 hours and the number of dead fish were counted at the end of each hour. Exposure to 10 mg/L, 100 mg/L and 1000 mg/L of CuSO4 caused 100 % mortality in one hours of exposure. However, 56.3% of mortality was observed in 1mg/L of CuSO4 exposed group at third hour of time interval. In addition, exposure to 10 μg/L, 100 μg/L and 1000 μg/L of CuSO4 caused dose and duration dependent increase in fish mortality. In contrast, no mortality was observed for 1μg/L of CuSO4 exposed group. Further, significant behavioral changes viz., wiggling of the tails, oblique swimming, lethargy and hypoactivity were observed in CuSO4 exposed groups. These results clearly showed the toxic effect of CuSO4 of fingerlings over short-term exposure periods.

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