In Brazil, the submerged plants Egeria densa and Egeria najas have caused damage to multiple uses of water. Hydrilla verticillata has been recently introduced, but it has a history as a problem plant in the U.S., Mexico and Australia. The objectives of this work were to assess the relative susceptibilities of these three macrophytes to diquat and the risks of using this herbicide for fish guppy (Phallocerus caudimaculatus). Thus, laboratory assays were set up to assess the relative susceptibility of the three macrophytes. Pointers of these plants were kept in solutions containing 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 mg L-1 diquat (Reward®) for 14 days. The evaluation was performed based on the variation of fresh matter weight and length of the pointers during the period of exposure to the herbicide. H. verticillata was more sensitive to diquat, compared with the two Egeria macrophytes, even at low herbicide concentrations. At higher herbicide concentrations, E. densa was more sensitive than E. najas. The risk of applying diquat to P. caudimaculatus was estimated by acute toxicity. Fingerlings of P. caudimaculatus of 0.4 ± 0.2 g were exposed to solutions of 0.0, 1.0, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0, 20.0, 25.0 and 30.0 mg L-1 of diquat. The 50% lethal concentration (LC (I) (50.96h)) of diquat estimated for P. caudimaculatus was 7.17 mg L-1. For P. caudimaculatus, acute toxicity was higher than the concentration recommended for the control of submerged plants, indicating very low risk for this fish.
aquatic macrophytes; toxicity; herbicide; environmental risk
