Author(s): Madhu Sharma

Abstract: Due to industrialization and urbanization many pollutants are being introduced directly and indirectly into aquatic ecosystem. Behavioural bioassay have been widely used in toxicity assessment. Bioassay based on behavior is faster, more sensitive and ecologically more relevant as assessing growth and reproduction need longer bioassay. Behavioural bioassay is more promising alternatives than lethality evaluating bioassay which are currently used for the risk assessment of toxicant. Behavioural changes provide early warning signals about the health of exposed population which other standard tests do not take in to consideration. These endpoints may be 10–100 times more sensitive than those derived from acute or chronic tests because chemicals can induce rapid behavioural responses in organisms even at very low concentrations. Behaviour is an organism-level effect defined as the action, reaction, or functioning of a system under a set of specific circumstances. We rationalize that a greater understanding of behavioural responses in effect to chemical stress may increase. Therefore in current scenario there is a need of developing newer and effective methods to study the behavioural responses. Behavioural changes in a fish form an efficient index to measure any alterations in the environmental conditions.

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