Int. J. Aquat. Biol. (2018) 6(1): 25-30 DOI:  

ISSN: 2322-5270; P-ISSN: 2383-0956

Journal homepage: www.ij-aquaticbiology.com 
© 2018 Iranian Society of Ichthyology 

Original Article 
Cadmium and arsenic bioaccumulation and bio-concentration in the endemic toothed carp 

Aphanius arakensis in salt water 
           
 Masoumeh Ariyaee1, Amir Hossein Hamidian*1, Soheil Eagderi2, Sohrab Ashrafi1, Hadi Poorbagher2 

 
1Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. 

2Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.

 

 

 

 

 

Article history: 
Received 28 March 2017 

Accepted 7 December 2017 

Available online 2 5 February 2018 

Keywords:  
Toxicity 

Heavy metals 

Organs 

BCF 

Abstract: Heavy metals are released to aquatic ecosystems from natural and anthropogenic recourses 
and accumulate to the body of organisms. This study aimed to assess the accumulation of As and Cd 
in the gill, liver, and muscle of the toothed carp Aphanius arakensis in salt water exposed to three 
concentrations of Cd and As (5, 10 and 20 mg L-1) for 18 days. The specimens were collected from 
the Shoor River with an average weight of 1.5±0.3 g (mean±SD) and length of 3.4±0.4 cm. The 
findings showed that the bio-concentration factor (BCF) of Cd and As were in the following order: 
liver > gill > muscle, however, for 5 ppm of As the order was gill > liver > muscle. BCF in As 
concentrations were more than Cd concentrations. Also, the highest BCF was found at 5 ppm. The 
present study showed that the liver is the organ that accumulates the highest concentrations of As 
and Cd. 
  

Introduction 

Fishes are suitable indicators for monitoring the land-

based pollutions, particularly heavy metals which 

accumulate in fish tissues, being absorbed through the 

skin or indirectly through food (Kamrine, 2000). 

Heavy metals are important threat to the aquatic 

environments because of chemical persistent, low 

degradation, bioaccumulation and bio-magnification 

(Anbiaee et al., 2009). Among heavy metals, 

Cadmium is very toxic, 2-20 times more than those of 

others (Perez-Lopez et al., 2008). Arsenic is another 

hazardous heavy metal originating from fertilizers and 

effluents that enter to the surface and groundwater 

(Philip, 1978).  

The heavy metals accumulate mostly in the muscle, 

liver and gill tissues of fishes due to their high 

metabolism rates (Khodabande, 2000). The liver plays 

an important role in accumulation of heavy metals and 

detoxification of wastes and its histopathological 

changes may be used as indicators of heavy metals 

(Wong et al., 2001). The gill is in direct contact with 

water and thus accumulates heavy metals (Oliveira-

Filho et al., 2010). Bioconcentration is a process that 
                                                           
*Corresponding author: Amir Hossein Hamidian                                                                      DOI: https://doi.org/10.22034/ijab.v6i1.447 

E-mail address: a.hamidian@ut.ac.ir 

chemicals affect the organisms and bioconcentration 

factor (BF) is determined by dividing concentration of 

heavy metals in the organism tissues to concentration 

of heavy metals in water (Otitoloju et al., 2009). 

The genus Aphanius is the only representative of 
the Cyprinodontidae (Teleostei, Cyprinodontiformes) 

in Eurasia. Iran and central Anatolia show the highest 

diversity of Aphanius, and 14 extant and one fossil 
species are known to occur in Iran based on data 

derived from fish morphometry and meristics, 

otoliths, scales and mtDNA sequences (Coad, 2016; 

Teimori et al., 2014 ). Twelve out of 14 Iranian 

Aphanius species are endemic to this country. This 
genus occurs in coastal (brackish) and landlocked 

(freshwater to saline) water bodies in the 

Mediterranean and Persian Gulf basins from Iberian 

Peninsula as far eastwards as Iran and Pakistan 

(Teimori et al., 2014). Aphanius arakensis is a newly 
described species of this genus from the Namak Lake 

basin in Iran (Teimori et al., 2012, 2014). This species 

tolerates a wide range of physicochemical parameters 

(Coad, 2016), then it can be an appropriate model to 

study the effect of heavy metal pollution since it is 



26 
 

Hamidian et al./ Cadmium and arsenic bioaccumulation and bio-concentration in Aphanius arakensis 

found in both salt and fresh water in the Namak lake 

basin. Hence, this study was conducted to examine the 

accumulation of Cd and As in the muscle, gill and liver 

of A. arakensis and their bioconcentration factor in 
different concentrations of As and Cd in the laboratory 

condition. 

 

Materials and Methods 

In this study, a total of 375 female specimens of 

A. arakensis with an average weight of 1.5±0.3 g 
(mean±SD) and length of 3.4±0.4 cm were collected 

from the Eshtehard Shoor River (35º36'31'' N, 

50º48'23'' E), (Alborz Province, Iran) in June 2011 

(Fig. 1). Dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, water 

temperature and pH were measured during the 

sampling, which were 11.68 mg L-1, 11-12 g L-1, 

12.85±6.22°C and 7-8.5, respectively. 

The fish samples were transported to the fisheries 

laboratory of University of Tehran in polythene bags. 

Prior to the experiment, the fish were acclimatized to 

the laboratory conditions for five days in pre-cleaned 

30 L glass aquaria (30×30×40 cm) filled with de-

chlorinated tap water. During the experiment, the fish 

were fed with a commercial fish food (Biomar) at a 

rate of 3-5% body weight twice a day. The 

physicochemical conditions of the aquaria were as 

follows: temperature, 27.5±1.2°C, pH, 7.7±0.5, 

CaCO3 hardness, 295±18 mg L
-1 and DO, 7.9±0.1 

mg L-1.  

Cd and As were used as arsenic oxide (As2O3) and 

cadmium chloride (CdCl2) salts (Merck, Germany). 

Twenty-one aquaria were filled with salt water of the 

sampling area and aerated throughout the experiment. 

The animals were randomly allocated to 21 aquaria as 

seven treatments each with three replicates containing 

10 fish. Three aquaria received no chemical and was 

Figure 1. The sampling area () in the Shoor River. 



27 
 

Int. J. Aquat. Biol. (2018) 6(1): 25-30 

 

the control. The other 18 aquaria received only a 

concentration of Cd (5, 10 and 20 mg L-1) or As (5, 10 

and 20 mg L-1) for 18 days.  

At the end of the experiment, the animals were 

anaesthetized and euthanized. A piece of their gill, 

liver and muscle were removed. Five specimens from 

each aquarium were pooled to make an appropriate 

weight of sample (the gill and muscle≈1 g, the 

liver≈0.5 g). The organ samples were digested in a 

mixture containing HNO3 and HClO4 (Mansouri et al., 

2012c). The tissues were then weighed accurately and 

put into 150 mL Erlenmeyer flasks. Then, 10 mL nitric 

acid (65%) were added to each sample. The samples 

were left overnight to be digested slowly (Baramaki et 

al., 2012; Mansouri et al., 2012). Finally, 5 mL 

perchloric acid (70%) were added to each sample. 

Digestion was performed on a hot plate (sand bath) at 

90ºC. The digested samples were diluted with 25 ml 

deionized water. The concentration of Cd and As were 

measured using ICP-OES (GBC Integra XL, 

Australia) and presented as mg g-1 wet weight (ww). 

All the measurements were repeated three times and 

the average of the values was reported along with their 

standard deviations.  

The following equation was employed to determine 

the bioconcentration factor in different tissues of 

A. arakensis in different concentrations of metals. 
BCF=C tissues/ C water 

Where C tissues are average concentration of 

metals in different tissues and C water: average 

concentration of metals in water. The analyses of data 

were performed using SPSS (Version 16). 

 

Results 

Only 5% of the specimens died during the experiment. 

The detection limits, blanks and recoveries of the 

measurements of metals in the samples are presented 

in Table 1. 

Average accumulation of As and Cd in different 

tissues of A. arakensis in salt water are shown in 
Figures 2. The metals were accumulated in different 

tissues in the following order of magnitude: liver < gill 

< muscle. The Figures 2 and 3 show that the highest 

accumulated Cd and As was found in the liver. On the 

other hand, the lowest accumulated Cd and As found 

in the muscle. The average accumulation of As and Cd 

in different tissues of A. arakensis in salt water are 
shown in the Figures 3 and 4. The lowest 

accumulation of As and Cd was observed in the 

control group and in the muscle, while the highest 

accumulation of As and Cd were found in the liver, 

and 10 and 20 ppm, respectively. 

Bio-concentration Factor (BCF) was calculated in 

different tissues of the specimens. The highest BCF of 

As was found in the gill and in the concentration of 

5ppm. The highest BCF of Cd was found observed in 

the liver. The lowest BCF of Cd and As were detected 

in the muscle and in the concentration of 20 ppm (Fig. 

Table 1. Detection limits, blanks and recoveries of the measurements. 

Element Detection limit (µg/g) Recovery Mean (%)±SD Blank Mean (µg/g)±SD) 

Cd 0.29 96.10±3.77 0.054±0.006 

As 0.19 97.50±1.46 0.0±0.0 

 

Figure 2. Mean (±SD) As and Cd average accumulation in different 

organs of female Aphanius arakensis. 



28 
 

Hamidian et al./ Cadmium and arsenic bioaccumulation and bio-concentration in Aphanius arakensis 

4). BCF of As was more than that of Cd. The 

maximum BCF of As and Cd were found at the 

concentration of 5 ppm (5 ppm>10 ppm>20 ppm). 

 

Discussion 

Accumulation of metals in the aquatic environment 

suggests that fishes can serve as a suitable bioindicator 

for contaminating metals in aquatic environment, 

because they respond to variations with great 

sensitivity in aquatic ecosystems (Mansouri et al., 

2011). Our findings confirm differences in 

accumulation of heavy metals in the different tissues. 

Based on the results of this study, the liver identified 

as target organ in salt water aquaria (liver > gill > 

muscle) which is in agreement with Kojadinovic et al. 

(2007), Monsef Zadeh (2008), Naseri et al. (2005), 

Norouzi et al. (2012) and Mansouri et al. (2012). 

Similarly, many studies showed that the liver can 

accumulate high concentrations of heavy metals due 

to its key role in the metabolism of the body. 

Therefore, the liver is suitable indicator for the 

assessment of impact of environmental pollutants 

(Yılmaz, 2009). After the liver, the gill showed a high 

accumulation of Cd and As concentrations in salt 

water tanks. The gills are places that accumulate water 

ions and one of the first tissues that have direct contact 

with environmental pollutants. The gill is also exposed 

to the pollutants to a greater extent compared with 

other organs, causing a higher rate adsorption and 

accumulation of the pollutants than those of other 

organs. As in the liver, the gill can be considered as an 

indicator of pollutants in both marine and freshwater 

habitats (Oliveira-Filho et al., 2010).  

The present study showed that accumulation of Cd 

and As was lower in the muscle than those of the liver 

and gill. This finding is similar to those of Mansouri 

et al. (2012) and Majnoni et al. (2013), where the rate 

of bioaccumulation in the muscle was lower than those 

of the liver and gill. Generally, tissues which have low 

metabolic activities accumulate high concentrations of 

heavy metals (Amini Ranjabr and Sotoodenia, 2005). 

However, the muscle is not an active tissue to 

accumulate heavy metals which has been confirmed in 

this study and by others (Tekin-Ozan and Kir, 2007; 

Figure 3. Mean (±SD) As and Cd accumulation in different organs of 

female Aphanius arakensis in concentrations of 5, 10, 20 ppm and 
control group. 

Figure 4. BCF of As and Cd in different tissues (ng g-1 wet weight). 



29 
 

Int. J. Aquat. Biol. (2018) 6(1): 25-30 

 Karadede, 2000; Wong et al., 2001). Terra et al. 

(2008) indicated that low concentrations of heavy 

metals in the muscle may be a result of a low level of 

binding proteins. 

According to the finding of this study and other 

studies (Subathra and Karuppasamy, 2008; Senthil 

Murugan et al., 2008), the order of the magnitude of 

BCF for Cd and As in tissues were liver > gill > 

muscle but this order in 5 ppm of As was gill > liver > 

muscle which is similar to findings of Jayakumar and 

Issac Paul (2006) and Asagba et al. (2008). The liver 

is a place for storage, detoxification and biological 

transmission of heavy metals in fishes. Therefore, the 

highest accumulation of heavy metals is normally 

found in the liver (Kalay and Canli, 2000). It is shown 

that a large amount of metallothionein induction 

happens in the liver of fishes. Transmission of a large 

volume of water through the gills to obtain oxygen in 

stressful condition may increase rapidly toxic heavy 

metals in the gills (Karuppasamy, 2004). Hamidian et 

al. (2013) ignored results of this study that BCF of As 

was more than that of Cd. However, metabolic 

processes such as biological transmission, active 

uptake and fat metabolism affect bioaccumulation 

plus other factors including contamination gradients 

of water, temperature, salinity and interacting agents 

(Van Geest, 2010). 

 

Acknowledgments 

We would like to thank M. Khazaee for his help. This 

study was financially supported by the University of 

Tehran. 

 

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Int. J. Aquat. Biol. (2018) 6(1): 25-30 

E-ISSN: 2322-5270; P-ISSN: 2383-0956

Journal homepage: www.ij-aquaticbiology.com 

© 2018 Iranian Society of Ichthyology 

 چکیده فارسی

 

 شور آب در Aphanius arakensis بومی گورماهی در آرسنیک و کادمیوم زیستی تجمع و تغلیظ
  

 2پورباقر هادی ،1اشرفی سهراب ،2ایگدری سهیل ،1*حمیدیان حسین امیر ،1آریایی معصومه

 .ایران کرج، تهران، دانشگاه طبیعی، منابع دانشکده زیست، محیط گروه1
 .ایران کرج، تهران، دانشگاه طبیعی، منابع دانشکده شیالت، گروه2

 

  چکیده:

شوند. هدف از این مطالعه ارزیابی انباشت انباشته می زنده بدن موجودات درشوند و منتقل می یهای آباکوسیستمفلزات از منابع طبیعی و انسانی به 

As  وCd  کبد و عضله آبششدر ،Aphanius arakensis  در معرض سه غلظت  شور ودر آبCd  وAs (5 ،10  برای میلی 20و )18گرم در لیتر 

ها نشان داد که یافته. شد آوریجمع مترسانتی 4/3±4/0 ( و طولSD±میانگین) گرم 5/1±3/0 با میانگین وزنی ها از رودخانه شورنمونه بود. روز

عضله است.  < کبد <آبششترتیب به Asاز  ppm5 اگرچه در غلظت عضله،  <آبشش <: کبدبه این ترتیب است Asو  Cdضریب تغلیظ زیستی 

BCF  بود. همچنین بیشترین میزان  کادمیومبیشتر از آرسنیکBCF غلظت در ppm 5 است  اندامی. مطالعه حاضر نشان داد که کبد مشاهده شد

 دهد.را تجمع می Cdو  Asغلظت  بیشترینکه 

 .تغلیظ زیستی ،هااندام ین،گسنسمیت، فلزات  :کلمات کلیدی