[en] Ecological changes caused by the continued pollution of the aquatic environment by chemicals through industrial effluents and domestic sewage and emanations settling into water pose grave concern. Synthetic detergents are one of the most important in this respect since they find their way into aquatic ecosystems thereby affecting the food chain. Earlier studies with diverse aquatic fauna and flora suggested the potential ecotoxicological impact of synthetic detergents. A large number of reports are available on the pollutants toxic to fish. Fish are known to accumulate mercury by virtue of efficient uptake and slow rate of elimination. Mercury also causes morphological and physiological defects with consequent behavioral abnormalities in fish. Even though in actual situations the stress to the ecosystem is caused by a mixture of pollutants, the interactive effect of two or more pollutants present together is poorly understood. Also, in the presence of one toxicant, the capacity of the ecosystem to deal with others can be impaired so that even biodegradable water pollutants may tend to accumulate. Therefore, an attempt has been made to study the uptake and distribution of mercury in presence and absence of detergent to test for any combined effects