Abstract

Heavy metals are surrounded with great care and special importance due to their highly toxic effects on fish, which is a part of human diet; they affect survivability, growth and reproductionof fish.The present study has been conducted to determine heavy metals (chromium, cadmium, zinc, copper, lead and selenium) bio-accumulation in the muscles of three fish species, Common carp (Cyprinus Carpio), Nile tilapia (Oreochromisniloticus) and Mugil cephalus (striped mullet) that were collected from a different locations (Damanhour, Kafr El Dawarand El Mahmoudia)along- Boheira governorate in Egypt.The results showed a statistically significant (p˂0.05) difference between fish species in the concentration of the accumulated heavy metals in muscle of examined species. It was observedthatheavy metals bio-accumulation in fish were in the order of Mugil cephalus ˃ Nile Tilapia˃ Common carp,furthermore, the most of these levelswithin the global permissible limits for muscles samples.

Key words: Heavy metals; Common carp; Nile Tilapia; Mugil cephalus;bioaccumulation;chromium(Cd);cadmium(Cr); zinc(Zn);copper(Cu);lead(Pb) and selenium(Se).