Responses of freshwater animals to sodium cyanide solutions II. Gammarus pulex

Abstract

Experiments with Gammarus puler with cyanide solutions gave generally similar results to those given by experiments with fish. These animals however, appeared to be less sensitive than fish. The response limit for Gammarus, for sodium cyanide, is about 0.0001N. Addition of thiosulphate to sodium cyanide reduce the toxicity but unlike with fish, the reactions are accelerated. Increasing the temperature, increasing or decreasing the pH and lowering the oxygen content had effects on their reactions similar to those seen in fishes