Abstract:
The concentrations of heavy metals namely;
Manganese, Cadmium, Lead, Mercury and
Arsenic (Mn, Cd, Pb, Hg and As) including Iron
(Fe), were determined in catfish and tilapia
samples from Densu River at Weija in 2012. The
fish Muscles were carefully dissected for
digestion and the levels of heavy metals were
determined using Microwave Milestones Ethos
900 double beam Atomic Absorption
Spectrophotometer (AAS). Concentrations of
heavy metals in the fish samples analyzed in
descending order of Fe > Mn > Cd were
detected, but, the rest (Pb, Hg and As) were not
detected. The highest concentration of Cadmium
(0.808mg/kg) was detected in the muscles of
Catfish while the lowest value (0.129mg/kg) in
Tilapia. The lowest concentration of Mn
(0.78mg/L) and Iron (44mg/L) were detected in
catfish whereas the highest Mn = 1.74mg/L, Fe
= 53mg/L were in the Tilapia samples. Cadmium and Iron accumulated by the two fish
species exceeded the maximum permissible
limits prescribed by the World Health
Organization guideline well as the Food and
Agriculture Organization standard. Higher
levels of heavy metals accumulated by the fishes
might be due to increase in the agricultural
influx waters, domestic wastes and some
anthropogenic activities which merit further
investigation
