Parasitic diversity of a wild Satanoperca jurupari population, an ornamental cichlid in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Assessment of biodiversity is fundamental for the understanding of ecological interactions, but fish parasites were neglected in biodiversity estimates for a long time. The aim of this paper was to investigate the diversity of parasites in Satanoperca jurupari in the Amazon River system in Brazil. Of the fish examined, 90.0% were parasitized by one or more species of protozoans and metazoans, and a total of 3,110,094 parasites were collected. Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, Piscinoodinium pillulare, Sciadicleithum juruparii, Clinostomum marginatum, Posthodiplostomum sp., Genarchella genarchella, Argulus multicolor and Ergasilus coatiarus were found. However, I. multifiliis and P. pillulare were the most prevalent, abundant and dominant parasites, while A. multicolor and G. genarchella were the least prevalent and abundant parasites. The parasites had an aggregate dispersion, but E. coatiarus and the endoparasite species had a higher aggregation pattern. The species richness of parasites varied from 1 to 8 species per host, the Brillouin index varied from 0.32 to 1.09 and evenness varied from 0.01 to 0.47. The host size did not influence the diversity indices and the abundance of parasites, which did not affect the body condition of the hosts. Satanoperca jurupari is a new host for G. genarchella.

Ectoparasites community in Satanoperca jurupari (Cichlidae) from the Jari River, a tributary from Amazon River in Northern Brazil

“…However, I. multifiliis was the dominant species in this study, and most ectoparasite species had a high prevalence and low abundance of infection. Similar community of ectoparasites was reported for this native cichlid species from the Igarapé Fortaleza River (TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2017). The interaction between biotic and abiotic factors is essential for the composition and structure of parasite communities (MORAND et al, 2002;SILVA et al, 2011;ACOSTA et al, 2013;COSTA-PEREIRA et al, 2014;OLIVEIRA et al, 2016;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2017).…”

“…Similar community of ectoparasites was reported for this native cichlid species from the Igarapé Fortaleza River (TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2017). The interaction between biotic and abiotic factors is essential for the composition and structure of parasite communities (MORAND et al, 2002;SILVA et al, 2011;ACOSTA et al, 2013;COSTA-PEREIRA et al, 2014;OLIVEIRA et al, 2016;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2017). Therefore, due to the complex parasite-host-environment interaction, initially, the parasites attempt to establish themselves in the host while the host resists the infection via its immune defense mechanisms (SILVA et al, 2011;ROHLENOVÁ et al, 2011).…”

“…Possible causes for this type of parasite distribution pattern on fish are common to many ectoparasites (ACOSTA et al, 2013;COSTA-PEREIRA et al, 2014;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2015;OLIVEIRA et al, 2016;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2017). Such causes include differences among host individuals regarding susceptibility to parasites, possible tendencies for fish that have acquired one parasite to acquire others, and different probabilities of encountering an infective stage of the ectoparasites in the environment (POULIN & FITZGERALD, 1987;COSTA-PEREIRA et al, 2014;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2015;OLIVEIRA et al, 2016).…”

“…Yamada et al (2009) (MELO et al, 2012) were described. Protozoans Piscinoodinium pillulare Schäperclaus, 1954, Lom, 1981 and Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1866; monogenoideans Sciadicleithum juruparii Yamada et al, 2009 and S. satanopercae; digeneans Posthodiplostomum sp., Clinostomum marginatum Rudolphi, 1819 and Genarchella genarchella Kohn & Fernandes,1988; acantocephalans Gorytocephalus spectabilis Machado-from the Igarapé Fortaleza basin, in eastern Amazon were reported (BITTENCOURT et al, 2014;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2017). Recently, Paschoal et al (2016) described the monogenoidean Sciadicleithrum edgari Paschoal, Scholz, Tavares-Dias & Luque, 2016 from gills of this cichlid from the Araguari River, in state of Amapá (Brazil).…”

“…The species has multiple spawns and takes parental care, putting the eggs and larvae into the oral-pharyngeal cavity. In addition, it does not perform schooling to reproduce (SANTOS et al, 2004;SOARES et al, 2011;QUEIROZ et al, 2013;FROESE & PAULY, 2017;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2017). Despite the importance of this fish for the Amazon region, little is known about its parasitic fauna.…”