The Toxicity of Hydrogen Peroxide to Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarki Fry and Fingerlings

Fungal and parasitic infections of fish can significantly impact the survival of cultured fish. Formalin is currently used to control such infections; however, concern has arisen over its safety to users and to the environment. Hydrogen peroxide has been designated as a low priority fungicidal drug by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), yet, little information is available on treatment concentrations or its toxicity to trout. Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarki fry and Angerlings were exposed to hydrogen peroxide concentrations of 0, 70, 170, 280, 420 and 540 ppm for 30, 60 or 120 rnin at 15 C to determine the chemical's toxicity. Rainbow trout fry and fingerlings experienced elevated mortalities (>20%) during treatments using 420 and 540 ppm for 30 min; 280, 420 and 540 ppm for 60 min; and >170 ppm for 120 min. Cutthroat trout fry experienced elevated mortalities (>23%) during treatments using 540 ppm for 30 min; 420 and 540 ppm for 60 min; and >170 ppm for 120 min. Cutthroat trout fingerlings experienced elevated mortalities (>60%) during treatments using 540 ppm for 60 min and >280 ppm for 120 min. No control mortalities were encountered for both life stages of either species. The lethal concentrations (LC₅₀) of both age classes and species for each of the three durations ranged from 514–636 ppm for 30 min treatments, 322–506 ppm for 60 min treatments, and 189–280 for 120 min treatments. Mortalities for all four toxicity tests which occurred during a 96-h post-treatment period were centered around the following treatments: 30 min, 540 ppm; 60 min, 280–540 ppm; 120 min, 170 ppm. Tissue damage to gills was found only among fish that did not survive the initial chemical exposure. Test concentrations proved to be relatively stable during a 24-h period, retaining better than 85% of their original strength for all five dilutions. At a water temperature of 15 C concentrations should not exceed 280 ppm for a 30-min treatment.