Aquatic toxicology of selected rice insecticides,with special reference to their effects on fish culture in West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Insecticides are widely used in SE Asian countries to control insect pests in rice, mainly stemborers (Chilo suppresallis) and brown plant hoppers (Nilaparvata lugens). The use of highly toxic insecticide compounds, however, is known to cause serious problem for fish culture in wet rice fields in many of these countries, particularly in Indonesia where this practice assumes a tremendous "house hold economic" importance, as well as being an essential part of the nation's inland aqua-culture production system. The laboratory and field experiments described were carried out to establish whether the application of five selected rice insecticides (fenobucarb, isoprocarb, buprofezin, diazinon and alphamethrin) would influence the growth and production of common carp fingerlings (Cyprinus carpio LINN.) raised in wet rice fields. Laboratory static toxicity tests revealed that the carbamate insecticides (fenobucarb and isoprocarb) were the least toxic insecticide compounds. The 96 hour Median Lethal Concentration (i.e the concentration that killed 50% of the test fish in 96 hours exposure period, under specified conditions) of these insecticides were 5.8mgl-1 and 5.3mgl-1, respectively. The synthetic pyrethroid insecticide alphamethrin was the most toxic insecticide with 96h-LC50 of 0.037mg1-1, while the organophosphate diazinon and the thiadiazin buprofezin showed intermediate toxicity to common carp (96h-LC50 = 2.3mgl-1 and 1.5mgl-1, respectively). A series of five field experiments were consecutively conducted, using 24 specially constructed rice field plots to accomodate the culture of common carp fingerlings for a period of 21 days. A single application of three dose regime, i.e 1/2X, 1 X and 2X of the recommended dose rate for insect control was given as treatment in each experiment. The survival of fish in all experiments were not significantly influenced by the insecticide treatment (P > 0.05). The growth rate and the production of fish biomass in rice fields treated with isoprocarb, buprofezin, diazinon and alphamethrin, were also found to be comparable with those in the untreated control plot (P > 0.05). In the rice fields treated with the highest dose rate of fenobucarb (1500gha-1 ,Al), the growth and production of fish were significantly lower than those in the untreated control rice fields (P < 0.05). Observations on the rice field biota revealed no definite pattern in the temporal changes of the population of zooplankton and macroinvertebrates both in the insecticide treated plots as well as in the untreated control plots. The minimum effects of the insecticide treatment to fish and rice field biota observed in the experiment were presumably due to several factors, mainly because a significant amount of the compounds were adsorbs by the rice field soil and aquatic vegetations and not onto the water, causing less toxicity, followed by the rapid flushing of the chemicals from the rice field system. The composition of the diet of common carp fingerlings in the rice field was found to be similar with those reported in the natural ponds, consisting mainly of aquatic insects (and their larvae), crustaceans, benthic macroinvertebrates and plant detritus. Based on the results of the present experiments, of the five insecticide compounds tested, diazinon and fenobucarb appeared to produce greater risk to fish when used in rice-fish farming. The use of agrochemicals in rice-fish farming should be carefully managed and controlled, using selected low toxic and non-persistent insecticides based on the result of laboratory and field toxicity tests.