Toxicity of Heavy Metal to a Freshwater Crustacean Ceriodaphniadubia

The main objective of this study was to evaluatethe acute toxicity of heavy metals. The acute toxicity test wasdetermined to delineate toxic levels of metals to freshwater crustacean Ceriodaphniadubia.Freshwater zooplanktonwere subjected to bioassay test in the laboratory conditions using copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) metals. Mortality was assessed at interval of 12 hour (h), 24h, 36h and 48h. Acute toxicity and median lethal concentrations (LC50) were determined by Sprague and Finney method. The 95% confidence interval was calculated as per the literature. Slope and regression (R2) values were also calculated to confirm the authenticity of the results. LC50 values for 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours were 0.090, 0.088, 0.086 and 0.084 mg/L respectively. In case of Cd, the 12, 24, 36 and 48 h LC50 was 0.06, 0.058, 0.052 and 0.044 mg/L respectively. Results show that Cd metal was found to be more toxic than Cu metal. Keywords—Bioassay, Acute toxicity, LC50, heavy metal, 95 % confidence interval, Ceriodaphniadubia