Parasite fauna of white-streaked grouper, Epinephelus ongus (Bloch, 1790) (Epinephelidae) from Karimunjawa, Indonesia

Abstract

SUMMARYThis study provides the first comprehensive information on the parasite fauna of the white-streaked grouperEpinephelus ongus. A total of 35 specimens from the archipelago Karimunjawa, Java Sea, Indonesia were studied for metazoan parasites. For comparison, the documented parasite community of 521E. areolatus,E. coioidesandE. fuscoguttatusfrom previous studies were analysed. A total of 17 different parasite taxa were recognized forE. ongus, including 14 new host and four new locality records. This increases the known parasite taxa ofE. ongusby more than 80%. The ectoparasite fauna was predominated by the monogeneanPseudorhabdosynochus quadratusresulting in a low Shannon index of species diversity of the entire parasite community (0.17). By contrast, the species diversity excluding the ectoparasites reached the highest value recorded for Indonesian epinephelids (1.93). The endoparasite fauna was predominated by generalists, which are already known from Indonesia. This demonstrates the potential risk of parasite transmission throughE. ongusinto mariculture and vice versa. One-way analyses of similarity revealed a significantly different parasite community pattern ofE. onguscompared withE. areolatusandE. fuscoguttatusas well as minor differences withE. coioides. This finding refers to different habitat preferences of these epinephelids within the analysed size range.

Identification and Life Cycle of Marine Leech Isolated From Cultured Hybrid Grouper in the Northern Bali Waters of Indonesia

“…could cause a high-risk infestation on predatory fish (Jakob & Palm, 2006). In addition, the ectoparasite fauna in the Karimunjawa Archipelago, Java Sea, was dominated by the monogenean Pseudorhabdosynochus quadratus resulting in a low Shannon index of species diversity of the entire parasite community (0.17) (Neubert et al, 2016).…”

Parasite Fauna of the White-Streaked Grouper (Epinephelus ongus) from the Thousand Islands, Java, Indonesia

“…Today, fishing pressure is shifting toward smaller species such as E. ongus, which is now targeted as food fish in some regions, e.g., Japan [27,28]. Demand for E. ongus has increased steadily [28,29], also based on landings of E. ongus in Indonesia (Karimunjawa) [28,30]. With only seven previous studies on the parasite fauna of E. ongus in South-East Asia and Australia [28,[31][32][33][34][35][36], we herewith sample this fish species from the Thousand Islands archipelago in close proximity to the heavily polluted Jakarta Bay.…”

“…Demand for E. ongus has increased steadily [28,29], also based on landings of E. ongus in Indonesia (Karimunjawa) [28,30]. With only seven previous studies on the parasite fauna of E. ongus in South-East Asia and Australia [28,[31][32][33][34][35][36], we herewith sample this fish species from the Thousand Islands archipelago in close proximity to the heavily polluted Jakarta Bay. Our objectives for this study are to assess the transmission risk of parasites from E. ongus to cogeners and vice versa and to determine parasite-borne health risks of E. ongus to consumers in terms of food safety and to mariculture fish.…”

Bucephalus damriyasai n. sp. (Digenea: Bucephalidae) from the blacktip trevally Caranx heberi (Bennett) (Perciformes: Carangidae) off Bali, Indonesia

“…Without proper identification the use of fish parasites as biological indicators (Palm, 2011 ), of increasing importance in many regions (Truong et al, 2017 ), is difficult and in some cases impossible. Palm & Rückert ( 2009 ), Palm et al ( 2011 ) and Neubert et al ( 2016 ) have developed a method to use grouper fish parasites as biological indicators for pollution and environmental change in Indonesian coastal waters, but several bucephalids recovered were only tentatively identified (Bray & Palm, 2009 ).…”