Experimental study of water and sediment purification by gastropod Faunus ater from UMT Mengabang telipot enclosed lagoon

Abstract

This study was done in order to confirm whether the gastropod Faunus ater, which were taken from the enclosed lagoon of UMT, could purify the water and sediment. For the purification of water, dissolved oxygen concentration, biological oxygen demand, total solids and turbidity changes were studied while the change of the total organic carbon was done for the sediment. Besides all the parameters, the stomach content of the snails and the water used were observed after the experiment. Three different tanks that consist of different numbers of snails were used in the experiment. Tank 1 was act as a control without animals while there were 5 individuals in tank 2 and IO individuals in tank 3. There was a significant changes in the concentration of dissolved oxygen and total solids in the water and total organic carbon in the sediment that have been observed in all tanks after the experiments. Meanwhile, there were no significant changes that could be found for the biological oxygen demand and turbidity value after the experiment. For the observation of the snail stomach, the presence of green algae and microorganism could be seen while there was accumulation of particulate matter in the water that placed in the tanks after the experiment. So, it was proven that the snail can purify the water by reducing the amount of total solids in the water column and at the same time purifying the sediment by reducing the concentration of Total Organic Carbon.