Toxicity of neem pesticides on a fresh water loach, Lepidocephalichthys guntea (Hamilton Buchanan) of Darjeeling district in West Bengal.

Static renewal bioassay tests were conducted to evaluate the acute toxicity of two neem based biopesticides, applied widely on tea plantation namely, Nimbecidine and Neem Gold either separately as well as, in combination to the fingerlings (mean body length- 4.46 +/- 0.15 cm; mean body weight- 0.49 +/- 0.15g) of a fresh water loach, Lepidocephalichthys guntea (Hamilton Buchanan) acclimatized to laboratory conditions prior to experiment. The 96 hours LC50 values for Nimbecidine and Neem Gold and the combination of the two were 0.0135 mgl(-1), 0.0525mgl(-1) and 0.0396 mgl(-1), respectively. The regular water quality analysis showed, that with increasing doses of biopesticides, dissolved oxygen level was lower and other parameters like pH, free carbon dioxide, total alkalinity total hardness, chloride ions of water increased. The fish under toxicity stress suffered several abnormalities such as erratic and rapid movement, body imbalance and surface floating responding proportionately to the increase in concentrations of the toxicant biopesticides. The 96 hours LC50 values proved Nimbecidine more toxic than Neem Gold and the combination of the two biopesticides.