Investigating the effect of copper and lead on sperm motility parameters of Schizothorax zarudnyi

Sperm motility is one of the fundamental indices in sperm quality assessment. This study was carried to determine the sensitivity rate of Schizothorax zarudnyi spermatozoa at different concentrations of copper and lead. To do so, sperm from four male mature fish were exposed to 0, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 and 100 mg/L of PbCl2 and CuCl2 separately (6 treatments of CuCl2 and 6 treatments of PbCl2) and sperm motility percentage and total motility duration times were compared. Results show that sperm motility parameters decreased significantly with increase of pollutant concentration. Over time, with decrease of percentage of motile spermatozoa, their sensitivity is evident even to less concentration. Due to the fact that changes of sperm motility can influence the reproduction efficiency rate of breeder, increasing exposure to copper and lead will decrease quality of sperm of Schizothorax zarudnyi in the reproduction time.