Histopathological alterations and condition factor deterioration accompanied by isopod infestation in Tilapia zilli, Mugil capito and Solea aegyptiaca from Lake Qaroun

Molecular and morphological confirmation of an invasive American isopod; Livoneca redmanii Leach, 1818, from the Mediterranean region to Lake Qaroun, Egypt

“…At present, only two cymothoid species have been confirmed in Lake Qaroun, Egypt: L. redmanii and an unidentified juvenile Anilocra. Previously published reports of A. physodes (Shaheen et al, 2017), N. orbignyi (Abdel-Latif, 2016;Mahmoud et al, 2016;Younes et al, 2016;Shaheen et al, 2017) and R. thresherorum (Mahmoud et al, 2016(Mahmoud et al, , 2017Shaheen et al, 2017;Ali and Aboyadak, 2018) could not be corroborated -given body shape, coloration, attachment locations, pleotelson shape, and arrangement of the antennas/antennules, pereonites, pleonites, and uropod endopods and exopods -and represent misidentifications of L. redmanii. While a figure of A. physodes presented in Mahmoud et al (2017) could only be verified at the generic level, a species of Anilocra is present in Lake Qaroun, which could reflect A. physodes, a cymothoid that occurs widely in the Mediterranean.…”

“…The majority of isopods identified as species other than L. redmanii in Lake Qaroun were determined to be L. redmanii after an examination of the previously published photographs and illustrations (Table 3). Reports of A. physodes (Shaheen et al, 2017), Nerocila orbignyi (Abdel-Latif, 2016;Mahmoud et al, 2016;Younes et al, 2016;Shaheen et al, 2017) and Renocila thresherorum (Mahmoud et al, 2016(Mahmoud et al, , 2017Ali and Aboyadak, 2018) represent L. redmanii. Additionally, unidentified "Isopoda" presented in Elgendy et al (2017) were also L. redmanii.…”

“…Moreover, the lake supports large populations of migratory and resident bird species, which are the foundation of a burgeoning ecotourism industry (Wafik et al, 2011). A number of recent studies have suggested that there has been a near simultaneous introduction of four species of cymothoid isopod in Lake Qaroun namely: Anilocra physodes Linnaeus, 1758 and Nerocila orbignyi Guérin-Méneville, 1832, both widely reported in the Mediterranean (Bruce, 1987b;Öktener, et al, 2018); Renocila thresherorum (Williams and Bunkley-Williams, 1980), endemic to the eastern Pacific (Williams and Bunkley-Williams, 1980), but reported from the Suez Canal (Youssef et al, 2014); and Livoneca redmanii Leach, 1818, native to the western Atlantic and Caribbean (Bruce, 1990), but also recently reported from coastal Egypt (Abdel-Latif et al, 2016;Mahmoud et al, 2016Mahmoud et al, , 2017Mahmoud et al, , 2019Younes et al, 2016;Shaheen et al, 2017;Ali and Aboyadak, 2018;Helal and Yousef, 2018). Additionally, other recent publications have reported a number of non-native cymothoids in the eastern Mediterranean/Suez Canal, including R. thresherorum, Cymothoa exigua Schioedte and Meinert, 1884 (known from Gulf of California to Ecuador (Williams and Bunkley-Williams, 2003), but recorded in the Red Sea (Al-Zubaidy and Mhaisen, 2013) and Anilocra meridionalis Richardson, 1914 (known from the Galapagos and central North Pacific (Brusca, 1981) in the Suez Canal (Youssef et al, 2014) and Anilocra leptosoma Bleeker, 1857 (known from southern India to Australia (Bruce, 1987a;Aneesh et al, 2019) in coastal Egypt (Rania and Rehab, 2015).…”

“…Since this introduction, numerous mixed-species fish kills containing hundreds of individuals have occurred and nearly all mortalities were infected with cymothoid parasites (Younes et al, 2016;Mahmoud et al, 2017;Mohammad-Geba, personal observation). Recent work has indicated that these mortalities may have resulted from the synergistic effects of parasitic infection (which can cause gill/tissue damage, DNA damage (Mahmoud et al, 2016;Elgendy et al, 2017;Ali and Aboyadak, 2018;and Helal and Yousef, 2018), elevated pollutants (e.g., iron, cadmium, lead, ammonia, etc. (Abdel-Latif, 2016;Mahmoud et al, 2016;Elgendy, et al, 2017), and bacterial infections (e.g., Vibrio spp.…”

Light and Scanning electron microscopic investigations on gravid female Anilocra sp. (Isopoda: Cymothoidae) infesting Tilapia zillii in Qarun Lake, Egypt.

“…Previous studies have been carried out on the identification of isopods and their hurtful effects on economic fishes dwelling Qaroun Lake; Anilocra leptosome and Cymothoa indica (Rania and Rehab, 2015) Nerocila orbignyi (Abdel-Latif, 2016; Mahmoud et al, 2016;Younes et al, 2016;Shaheen et al, 2017) Anilocra physodes (Mahmoud et al, 2017 ;Shaheen et al, 2017) Renocila thresherorum (Mahmoud et al, 2016(Mahmoud et al, , 2017Shaheen et al, 2017;Ali and Aboyadak, 2018) and Levonica redmani (Mahmoud et al, 2017). Recently, molecular characterizations documented that L. redmanii was slightly bent to the left and Anilocra sp.…”