Vol. 37 No. 3, 1998

Comparative Zinc Concentrations in Tissues of Common Carp and Other Aquatic Organisms

Lian-Tien Sun and Sen-Shyong Jeng*

Department of Food Science, College of Fisheries, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan 202

Lian-Tien Sun and Sen-Shyong Jeng (1998) Zinc concentrations in various tissues of 24 aquatic organisms were measured. Common carp and crucian carp had extraordinarily high zinc concentrations with mean values of 562 and 634 µg/(g fresh tissue) respectively, in their digestive tract tissues. They had high zinc concentrations (usually > 100 g/[g fresh tissue]) in kidney, gill, skeletal tissues, and spleen, which were not seen in other species. Concentrations of Cu, Na, K, Ca, and Mg in digestive tract tissues of common carp and several freshwater fish were found to be similar. High zinc was found to be specific to common carp. Common carp were reared from fry to adult fish in the laboratory for 937 d and fed on an artificial feed containing 25 ppm zinc. Zinc concentrations in the whole body and digestive tract tissue of the fish were found to be consistently high throughout the period. The anterior portion of the digestive tract tissue of common carp had the highest zinc concentration, 1590 µg/(g fresh tissue), which decreased gradually to the posterior portion, at about 500 µg/(g fresh tissue).

Key words: Zinc, Common carp, Digestive tract, Viscera of fish.

*Correspondence: Fax: 886-2-24626602. E-mail: A0001@ntou66.ntou.edu.tw