Short and Long-Term Effects of Waterborne Cadmium on Growth and its Muscle Accumulation in Common Carp Fish (Cyprinus carpio), an Experimental Study

Common carp fish (Cyprinus carpi Linnaeus, 1758) were exposed to varying concentrations of waterborne cadmium (10, 50 and 100 ppb) during 30, 60 and 90 days, respectively. At the end of each experiment time, the influence of cadmium on fish growth parameters including total length (TL) and weight (W) were measured and its accumulation in muscles was also determined. Data obtained showed that although growth rate of fish in all cadmium treatments were lower than control group, this differences was not significant statistically (P > 0.05). Our finding related to cadmium accumulation indicated that exposure to cadmium as cadmium chloride for 30, 60 and 90 days lead to a significant increase (P < 0.05) in cadmium concentrations in the fish muscles. Accumulation of cadmium in muscles has been elevated with increasing in concentration and duration of cadmium exposures. Therefore the maximum accumulation has been observed in third treatment (i.e. 100 ppb for dissolved cadmium) after 90 days of exposure. Bioconcentration factors (BF) of cadmium for fish muscles were also calculated for understanding the rate of cadmium accumulation. Inverse relationships were therefore observed between BF and water cadmium concentration. In other word, the maximum accumulation rate has been detected at lower cadmium concentration.