Records of new localities and hosts for crustacean parasites in fish from the eastern Amazon in northern Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate parasites crustacean fauna in ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, and of the State Amapá and Pará, in northern Brazil. A total of 242 parasites, including ,, ,, ,, , and undetermined Lernaeidae, were collected from these hosts. The species had the greatest richness among the community of parasitic crustaceans. There was a low abundance of parasites among the hosts, other than, was most abundant in the integument of and. Finally, the present study reported nine new hosts for the crustacean parasite species and expanded knowledge of the occurrence of some parasite species in the Jari River basin, in eastern Amazon.

Low levels of crustacean parasite infestation in fish species from the Matapi River in the state of Amapá, Brazil

“…Among crustaceans, there are many ectoparasites of fish. These are found in various habitats and require a host during at least one phase of their life cycle (MAMANI et al, 2004;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2015;OLIVEIRA et al, 2017). Ergasilidae, Argulidae, Lernaeidae, Lernaeopodidae and Cymothoidae are the families most frequently found, and these infest the gills, oral cavity, nostrils and tegument of fish in Brazil.…”

“…Many of these parasites have received significant attention because of the damage that they cause to fishery resources, which includes reduced fish growth, reproduction and host activities such as natation (MAMANI et al, 2004;TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2015). Some of these parasite crustaceans require specific fish as hosts and parasitize specific sites, particularly in fish with certain lifestyles, while other parasites do not have any preferences (TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2015;OLIVEIRA et al, 2017). Thus, some species of these ectoparasites have a broad pattern of distribution in different places, while others are restricted to certain geographical areas (TAVARES-DIAS et al, 2015) and host species.…”

“…They collected 878 parasites, which included one species of Branchiura, one of Copepoda and one of Isopoda. Oliveira et al (2017) reported that in 13 host species of the Jari River (state of Amapá), the prevalence of parasites was 63.8%; they collected 399 parasite specimens. However, the diversity of crustacean parasites and their levels of infestation can be influenced by various factors relating to the biology of parasites and hosts, and by environmental factors, among others (CARVALHO et al, 2003;MAMANI et al, 2004;FONTANA et al, 2012;ALSARAKIBI et al, 2014;MIKHEEV et al, 2015;VASCONCELOS & TAVARES-DIAS, 2016).…”

“…are known for frequently switching hosts and for having lower host specificity than that of other parasite groups. Among the factors that influence the infestation rates of these ectoparasites are the genetic similarities of the hosts and ecological factors that may be involved (MAMANI et al, 2004;OLIVEIRA et al, 2017). To conclude, in 66 host species, the rates of infestation with crustacean parasites were low, and most of the fish examined had low abundance of parasites, except C. johanna and G. camopiensis.…”

New records of crustaceans infesting Phractocephalus hemioliopterus (Siluriformes: Pimelodidae), the large catfish from the Amazon

“…Species of these crustaceans infest freshwater, saltwater and brackish water fish around the world and can be found in the integument, fins, mouth, lid, nostrils, gills, anus and abdominal cavity (Luque et al, 2013;Mamani et al, 2004;Oda et al, 2015;Tavares-Dias et al, 2015;Thatcher, 2006). In the Brazilian Amazon, branchiurans, copepods and isopods infest fish of the Characiformes, Perciformes, Siluriformes, Osteoglossiformes, and Rajiformes orders (Luque et al, 2013;Tavares-Dias et al, 2015;Oliveira et al, 2017). Characiform fish of the Serrasalmidae family have been the most infested, mainly by species of Argulus and Dolops (Tavares-Dias et al, 2015).…”