Bioaccumulation Pattern of Cadmium and Lead in the Head Capsule and Body Muscle of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) Exposed to Paint Emulsion Effluent

Abstract

The toxicity of Sub-lethal concentrations of effluents from a paint emulsion industry were investigated on African catfish Clarias gariepinus in order to determine the bioaccumulation pattern of two heavy metals i.e., Lead and Cadmium in the Head capsule and Body muscle using a renewable static bioassay. The trend of bioconcentration of metals in the head capsule and muscle of the test organisms differs significantly (p<0.05) and it followed the order, muscle>head capsule. In the muscle, the highest bioaccumulation of lead was 0.4680 mg/L while the least was 0.0660 mg/L. Cadmium bioaccumulation in the head had the highest value to be 2.0424 mg/L while the lowest value was 0.0101 mg/L. In the head capsule on the other hand, the highest accumulation of lead was found to be 0.3918 mg/L while its lowest value was 0.1677 mg/L. The highest value for cadmium in the head capsule was 2.0249 mg/L while its lowest was 0.0058 mg/L. It was revealed in the study that fish can bioaccumulate heavy metals from a polluted environment, which often result in reduction or impairment of natural population size and could be a veritable source of these metals to man. Therefore corrective measures should be taken to avoid pollution of this sort in the environment.