Concentration of selected heavy metals in seahorse, hippocampus trimaculatus and hippocampus spinossisimus

Abstract

A study on the heavy metal concentrations m two seahorse species, Hippocampus trimaculatus and Hippocampus spinossisimus were carried out. The seahorse samples were separated according to its length and sex. Concentrations of Fe, Cu, Mn, Al and Zn were determined using nitric acid digestion method and then analyzed with Inductively-Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). Results showed that the mean concentration of Al and Fe decrease as the length of the seahorse increases. Cu, Zn and Mn do not show any distinct relation between the concentration and the seahorse size. The result from this study does not show any significant difference in concentration of Al, Cu, Zn, Mn and Fe between the males and females in both species.