Evaluation of Acute Toxicity of Mercury, Cadmium and Zinc to a Freshwater Mussel Lamellidens consobrinus

Acute toxicity testing of fresh water mussel Lamellidens consobrinus to HgCl 2 , CdCl 2 and ZnSO 4 was carried out. The median lethal concentration (LC 50 ) of HgCl 2 , CdCl 2 and ZnSO 4 for 24, 48, 72 and 96 hrs were 1.9616, 1.8602, 1.6983 and 1.4066; 1.9050, 1.8631, 1.7542 and 1.6195; 1.9952, 1.9664, 1.9529 and 1.6756 ppm respectively. Analysis of results indicates that L. consobrinus is highly sensitive to HgCl 2 than CdCl 2 and ZnSO 4 . The toxicants can be arranged in order of their toxicities as Hg>Cd>Zn. DOI: 10.3126/on.v8i1.4326