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Acute Toxicity of Ammonia to Fathead Minnows
Author(s) -
Thurston Robert V.,
Russo Rosemarie C.,
Phillips Glenn R.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1983)112<705:atoatf>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - toxicity , acute toxicity , ammonia , environmental chemistry , chemistry , toxicology , environmental science , biology , biochemistry , organic chemistry
The acute toxicity of ammonia to fathead minnows Pimephales promelas was measured in 35, 96‐hour, flow‐through tests. The fish were from both wild and hatchery‐reared stocks, and ranged in size from 0.1 to 2.3 g. The 96‐hour median lethal concentrations (LC50) ranged from 0.75 to 3.4 mg/liter un‐ionized ammonia (34 to 108 mg/liter total ammonia‐nitrogen). The toxicity of ammonia decreased as temperature increased over the range 12 to 22 C. There was no significant relationship between ammonia toxicity and dissolved oxygen concentration, over the range of the latter from 3 to 9 mg/liter. Toxicity was not related to the size or the source of test fish. Received July 12, 1982 Accepted June 20, 1983