Data on monogenean (Platyhelminth) parasites in 11 populations of Astyanax aeneus (Pisces: Teleostei) in a neotropical river in Chiapas, south Mexico

Abstract

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “Aggregation and negative interactions in low-diversity and unsaturated monogenean (Platyhelminthes) communities in Astyanax aeneus (Teleostei) populations in a neotropical river of Mexico” publicated in Int. J. Parasitol. Parasites Wildl. 8 (2019) 203–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2019.02.005 . This article describes the communities of monogenean parasites in 11 populations of a small characid freshwater fish Astyanax aeneus (Günther) separated by small geographical distances along 60 km of the Lacantún river in Chiapas, Mexico. We examined 15 A. aeneus from each of 11 locations (one sample in February, a second sample in August 2012), situated at the mouth of the streams opening into the main body of the Lacantún river, at the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in the Lacandon forest, Chiapas in southern Mexico. The area of study is located ∼800 km from the mouth of the Usumacinta river in the Gulf of Mexico. In this paper we provide the data for 12 monogenean taxa. The material in this Data in Brief paper comprised the raw data on the abundance distribution of each monogenean taxa recorded in each of the locations; i. e. the number of helminth individuals of each of 12 taxa found in each one individual of A. aeneus from each of 11 localities. The data set is contained in a single table text document including one matrix per date of collection and locality of monogenean species (lines) per host A. aeneus (columns).

Ecto- and endo-parasitic monogeneans (Platyhelminthes) on cultured freshwater exotic fish species in the state of Morelos, South-Central Mexico

“…Similarly to the introduced tilapia in Mexico, cyprinids (i.e., C.idella ) are also widely distributed in the country including habitats located within areas protected for conservation (see Salgado Maldonado et al 2014). These fishes were introduced to Central America (i.e., Mexico and Honduras) for aquaculture purposes from 1965-1980s (Salgado-Maldonado and Rubio-Godoy 2014, Salgado-Maldonado et al 2015) and the presence of species of Dactylogyrus and G.kobayashii (see Table 1, 3) in Morelos might be originally related to these introductions.…”

“…The internal cavity of each fish was exposed by an incision made along the venter from the anus to mouth. The entire alimentary canal was removed; the interior of the gut was thoroughly examined in situ, then placed in a Petri dish containing hot formalin solution 4–5%, where it was searched for monogeneans (Salgado-Maldonado et al 2014). Subsequently, all monogeneans specimens were isolated and stained with Gomori’s trichrome and mounted in Canada balsam.…”