Ectoparasites of marine fish captured in the coast of Ceará State, Brazil

Abstract

Copepods, branchiopods and isopods are common ectoparasites in fish and other encourage aquatic. These parasites can fix in the skin, gills, oral cavity, mainly in the tongue, causing illnesses. The cultivation propitiates the appearance of focuses of infectious diseases owed the great number of specimens of confined fish. The present study seeks to identify the species of sea fish not confined, the area of body reached by the parasite and the ocurrence frequency. Among 1.034 examined individuals, belonging to 31 families and 66 species, only eight species were infected by 230 ectoparasites, being 3 copepods of genus Penella, 10 cirripedes, and the other isopods Flabellifera. The fish infected by isopods they were Aetobatus narinari, Chloroscombrus chrysurus and Oligoplites saurus, Polydactylus oligodon, Sparisoma rubripinne, Odontocion dentex and those sponged by copepods there is Diodon holocanthus and Isurus oxyrinchus was cirripedes. The areas of the body of the hosts more reached by the isopods were gills and mouth, while for the copepods it was the skin. The most infected species was C. chrysurus, followed by O. saurus, both Carangidae. The low ectoparasites prevalence in fish not confined reinforces the hypothesis that high concentration used for fish farming is a potential medium for the establishment of parasitosis focuses.