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The major goal of this study is to identify and quantify the hazardous recalcitrant heavy metals present in three different fish. Experiments are conducted to study the identification and quantification of iron (Fe), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), and zinc (Zn) on three species of fish namely, Rohu (Labeo rohita), Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) and Prawn (Penaeus monodon) using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results revealed that heavy metals, lead (Pb) and chromium (Cr) are present in toxic limits whereas all other heavy metals selected for the study are within the permissible limits. However, after giving boiling treatment, residual concentration of heavy metal lead (Pb) reduced from 3.35 to 2.4 ppm in Rohu fish, 11.16 to 2.17 ppm in Tilapia fish, and 2.74 to 1.5 ppm in Prawn (Chingri) fish. Similarly, residual concentration of heavy metal chromium (Cr) reduced from 25.4 to 5.7 ppm in Rohu fish, 29.7 to 17.8 ppm in Tilapia fish, and 18.6 to 6.4 ppm in Prawn (Chingri) fish, which is within the permissible limits. Boiling treatment is found to be an effective method for reducing the concentrations of recalcitrant heavy metals in fish fillets.

Key words: Heavy metals, Atomic absorption spectrophotometer, Boiling treatment, Recalcitrant, Residual limits.