Effect of Water-borne Copper on the Growth Performance of Fish Catla catla

An experiment was conducted to determine the growth performance of Catla catla fingerlings during 90-day sub-lethal copper (Cu) exposure. After acclimation period of two weeks, fish were transferred into glass aquaria of 70 L water capacity for growth trials. The treated fish were kept in the aquaria containing sub-lethal concentration of water-borne Cu (19.44 mg L-1) and grown for 60 days, while control fish were placed in metal free water. The chronic sub-lethal water-borne Cu exposure to the fish exerted significant impact on its body weight, fork and total lengths, length-weight relationships, condition factor, feed intake and feed conversion ratios. The treated fish exhibited significantly lower body weight and length gains than that of control. The increments of fish weights, fork and total lengths, condition factor, feed intake and condition factor of both treated and control fish varied significantly during study period. The water-borne Cu exposure also enhanced oxygen consumption by the fish along with ammonia excretion. © 2010 Friends Science Publishers