Study on Fish and Amphibian Embryo-Larval Toxicity Test

In China, it is necessary to establish short-term biomonitoring methods for evaluating the chronic toxicity of industrial wastewater. In this paper, the aquatic toxicity of four important pollutants in petrochemical wastewater, including acrylonitrile, acetonitrile, sulphocyanic sodium and dimethyl formamide, was studied with fish and amphibian embryo-larval toxicity tests using Cyprinus carpio and Rana nigromaculata as test organisms. The objective is to present some useful data for establishing short-term chronic toxicity test methods used to perform biomonitoring in China. The results indicate that the chronic toxicity of acrylonitrile to fish and amphibians was the highest of the four test pollutants, followed by NaSCN, acetonitrile and DMF. The sensitivity of the carp embryo- larval test to chemicals was greater than that of the R. nigromaculata embryo-larval test.