Assessment of heavy metal variation in catfish from two different habitats

Catfishes is one of the protein source that commercially known by many people in Malaysia. It also has highly demand from community day by day. However, the concern on heavy metal pollution in fish has become a great issue nowadays since it will give a bad effect to human health. Therefore, in this study, heavy metal concentration from two different breeding habitats of catfish which is soil pond and tank were evaluated by using target hazard quotient (THQ). The aim of the research is to determine the target hazard quotient of catfish from two different cultivated habitats. The fish samples undergo acid digestion process before analysed by using Atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) to determine the heavy metals concentration. The element that tested are cadmium(Cd), iron(Fe), nickel(Ni), zink(Zn), lead(Pb) and mercury(Hg) in catfish’s gills, liver, muscle, water and soil of the pond. Heavy metals concentrations in catfish from both habitats are under permissible limit stated by FAO except for the concentration of Fe in soil pond. However, THQ values for both habitats are <1, which is can be concluded that the fish from these two areas are safe to be consume by human.