Dietary Toxicity of Selenium-Contaminated Red Shiners to Striped Bass

Abstract

Abstract Red shiners Notropis lutrensis (weight, about 1 g each) from the selenium-affected areas of Belews Lake, North Carolina, a cooling reservoir for an electric power plant, were fed to striped bass Morone saxatilis (about 250 g each) in a laboratory experiment. Consumption of red shiners (whole-body selenium concentration, 9.6 μg Se/g wet weight) by striped bass was followed by modified behavior, little increase in weight, a reduced condition factor (105·weight/length3), an elevated selenium concentration in muscle (3.8 ug Se/g wet weight), histological damage to the liver and trunk kidney, and the death of all fish within 78 d. Striped bass fed a comparable, uncontaminated diet of golden shiners Notemigonus crysoleucas (about 1 g each) gained weight, increased their condition factor, had muscle selenium concentrations averaging 1.1 μg Se/g wet weight, and exhibited no histological abnormalities or reduced survival during the 80-d experiment. Toxicity and death induced by selenium-contaminated prey ...