R. Leena and D. Selva Raj
Abstract
Textile effluent is one of the major sources of water pollution and significantly affects the aquatic ecosystem in general and fish in particular. Histopathological changes have been widely used as biomarkers in evaluating the health of aquatic species exposed to contaminants. A variety of molecular, biochemical, and histological responses in fish have been employed as biomarkers of various environmental stresses. Fishes serve as valuable models for assessing the effect of various types of pollutants. Short term acute toxicity test was performed for a period of 96 hours using different concentrations of textile industrial wastewater with the aim of evaluating the acute toxicity of the effluent on the fish Poecilia reticulata. LC50 and safe concentration values indicated that the textile effluent is highly toxic to the fish. The study essentially stresses the importance of proper treatment of the textile effluent before discharge and the necessity to take control methods to safeguard the aquatic environment.