Experimental study on vanadium transfer in the benthic fish Gobius minutus

The radiotracer vanadium-48 was used to examine accumulation, assimilation, tissue distribution and elimination of vanadium in the benthic fish Gobius minutus (Pallas). After 3 wk exposure to ⁴⁸V in sea water, mean whole-body concentration factors were low (0.8). The tissue distribution of ⁴⁸V indicated that ⁴⁸V accumulated from water penetrates little into internal tissues, muscle or liver, and is preferentially fixed in tissues in direct contact with the sea water. Concentrations of stable vanadium in fishes collected during summer 1988 from the littoral zone near Monaco displayed the same trends. Vanadium accumulated directly from water is rapidly lost, as evidenced by a 19 d biological half-life of ⁴⁸V. Likewise, assimilation of vanadium through the food-chain is low; only 2 to 3% of ⁴⁸V ingested with prey is retained in the tissues of the goby. The results suggest that the relatively low vanadium toxicity observed in benthic fish by other investigators is a consequence of the low degree of uptake of this metal from food or water. The relative importance of uptake from food and from water to the vanadium levels in benthic fish is discussed in the light of the ⁴⁸V distribution recorded in experimental individuals and the distribution of stable vanadium in similar samples from the natural environment.