Decreased growth and survival in small juvenile fish, after chronic exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastic

Glassfish, Ambassis dussumieri (Cuvier, 1828), was used as a sentinel species to investigate the effects of the ingestion of environmentally relevant microplastic concentrations on juvenile fish growth and survival. Both virgin plastic and plastic collected from an urban harbour were fed to small juvenile fish daily for 95 days. Fish standard length, body depth and mass were recorded at intervals of 20 days, while survival was continuously recorded. All fish were fed tropical flakes, measured at 1.7% of the body mass per tank. Overall, fish in in plastic treatments grew less in body length and body depth compared to those control treatments. Fish mass was also lower in the virgin plastic treatment than control fish; however, the growth in mass was not significantly lower than fish in the harbour plastic treatment. The survival probability of fish in both plastic fed treatments was also lower than fish in controls.