Journal of Fisheries and Life Sciences

Author(s): Anisa Mitra, Dola Roy and Sumit Homechaudhuri

Abstract: The climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch, 1792) is a potamodromous species and the adults usually inhabit rivers, flooded fields, and stagnant water bodies. Though, their natural populations are declining rapidly in their natural habitat due to aquatic pollution. Among the aquatic toxic pollutants, Cadmium (Cd) is considered as the most hazardous in the ecotoxicological aspect. Hence, the present work is designed to understand the physiological stress response leading to their cause of decline in natural habitat. For this, different hematological and biochemical parameters were analyzed in A. testudineus along with their behaviour upon acute Cd exposure to establish dose response relationship in the aquatic environment for their survivability. The main haematological alteration resulting from exposure of A. testudineus to cadmium include significant decrease in haematocrit and haemoglobin concentration and in red blood cell counts. In case of biochemical parameters, a significant decrease was found in total protein, glucose, albumin, triglycerides content in Cd treated fish while there was an increase in alkaline phosphatase activity. These variations were found to be tissue specific and hence, can be used as meaningful indicators of heavy metal pollution and can interfere with the survivability of A. testudineus. The findings of this study may be used as a guideline for biomonitoring programs on fish populations cultured near areas contaminated by heavy metals