Numerous studies have shown that parasites potentially become bio-accumulators for heavy metals. The heavy metals
content in parasite-infected fish was reported to be lower compared to the parasite non-infected fish. Evaluation of heavy
metal content in Nemipterus peronii and Paraphilometroides nemipteri was performed using ICP-OES. Our result has
shown that arsenic was the most abundance heavy metal content in muscle N. peronii and P. nemipteri, suggesting that
the parasite has the ability to accumulate heavy metals. Heavy metals were reported to induce oxidative stress where
glutathione and p38 protein may be involved. Thus, expression of the p38 protein was determined using western blot
technique and glutathione content was measured fluorometrically. The p38 expression in P. nemipteri of Pulau Kambing
was higher compared to P. nemipteri of Besut has shown that the parasite may exposed to stress. Glutathione content
showed no significant changes due to detoxification mechanism occurred in the parasite. In this study, we could conclude
that P. nemipteri could be a bio-accumulator, whereas p38 protein and glutathione as indicator of stress level in the
parasite that exposed to the heavy metals.