Acute toxicity of drilling muds on litopenaeus vannamei (Boone, 1931) postlarvae

Abstract

A cute toxicity of six drilling muds (water based and synthetic based) was evaluated using Litopenaeus vannamei postlarvae to establish the 96 h median lethal concentration (LC50). The Suspended Particulate Phase (SPP) of each drilling mud was used as test material. Each mud SPP was evaluated using five test concentrations, and four replicates of each were used including the control. LC50 values obtained ranged from 4224 ppm to 26635 ppm for Water Based Mud (WBM) and from 40781 ppm to 308248 ppm for Synthetic Based Mud (SBM). The test protocol for acute toxicity for this species was validated through a control chart with the reference toxicant potassium dichromate. Litopenaeus vannamei clearly showed the required conditions to be used in acute toxicity tests. This research is pioneer in Colombia to determine the effects of drilling muds using a local marine organism.