Since its use as a model to study metazoan parasite culture and in vitro development, the plerocercoid of the tapeworm, Ligula intestinalis, has served as a useful scientific tool to study a range of biological factors, particularly within its fish intermediate host. From the extensive long-term ecological studies on the interactions between the parasite and cyprinid hosts, to the recent advanc...

In Salmonidae, infections with the parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae may lead to a temperature-dependent proliferative disease of kidney (PKD). Trout that survive infection and recover become resistant disease. The use this approach improve brown trout (Salmo trutta) stocking success was tested in three PKD-affected streams southern Germany. Fish were treated using local spores kept at low...

The Aphanius fasciatus is an endemic fish species of the coastal Mediterranean region; and recently discovered in the northern Algerian Sahara. The aim of this study is to evaluate the infestation by ectoparasites on A. fasciatus in the new arid habitats where it was newly recorded. For this purpose, skin and gills of 95 fish caught in the Still Wadi (Still river), between September 2012 and Ju...

The life cycle of Hedruris spinigera Baylis, 1931 (Nematoda: Hedruridae) is determined here with the first formal identification of the parasite's intermediate host: the crustacean amphipod Paracorophium excavatum Thomson. Adult H. spinigera are redescribed from specimens collected from the stomach of fishes, Retropinna retropinna (Richardson) and Aldrichettaforsteri (Valenciennes), from Lake W...

The parasite Ichthyophonus is enzootic in many marine fish populations of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Forage fishes are a likely source of infection for higher trophic level predators; however, the processes that maintain Ichthyophonus in forage fish populations (primarily clupeids) are not well understood. Lack of an identified intermediate host has led to the convenient hypothes...

Fish typically evoke a flight response in copepods. The behaviour of infective stage parasitic copepods, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, and adult holoplanktonic copepods, Acartia spp., in response to the approach of a rubber fish mimic was compared. Responses were scored as attacks if the copepod moved closer to the head or escapes if it moved further from the head. The parasite attacked the mimic in...

During the culture of wild-caught plaice, Pleuronectes platessa L. gross skin lesions and patches of dark brown pigmentation were observed on the ocular side of the fish. Mortality increased approximately nine months a er capture, and a er 10 months, 21 of the 27 fish had died. The presence of Gyrodactylus unicopula (Glukova 1955) was demonstrated by histology and light microscopy studies of sk...

The pennellid copepod Lernaeenicus ramosus Kirtisinghe, 1956 is a marine fish parasite in the Indo-West Pacific region. Serranid fishes (Perciformes) are major hosts of L. ramosus, and as its non-serranid host, single blenniid (Blenniiformes) known from Australia. A metamorphosed ovigerous female was collected grub fish, Parapercis sexfasciata (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843) (Perciformes: Pinguiped...

In a recent paper, ‘Experimental elimination of parasites in nature leads to the evolution of increased resistance in hosts’, Dargent et al. [1] reported on a transplant experiment using wild guppies, Poecilia reticulata. Fish were collected from a source population in a downstream, high productivity site where they experienced parasitism and predation. They were held in the laboratory and chem...

Hatchery-reared fish show high mortalities after release to the wild environment. Explanations for this include potentially predetermined genetics, behavioral, and physiological acclimation to fish farm environments, and increased vulnerability to predation and parasitism in the wild. We studied vulnerability to Diplostomum spp. parasites (load of eye flukes in the lenses), immune defense (rela...