Effect of salinity on development of zebrafish, Brachydanio rerio

Abstract

By varying all combinations of developmental stages and pulse exposures of zebrafish embryos, effect of salinity (S) was examined. Zebrafish embryos survived until hatching at 2%o S alone. Tolerance to salinity increased with advancing developmental stage, i.e. the gastrulae were more tolerant to salinity change than the blastulae and the blastulae were more tolerant than the cleaving embryos. Cytological examinations indicated that higher salinity mainly impaired the nuclear division of the embryonic cells.