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

Marcos Sidney Brito De Oliveira,Lígia Rigor Neves,Drielly Oliveira Ferreira,Marcos Tavares-Dias,Raissa Alves Gonçalves

doi:10.1590/s1984-29612017028

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the gills parasites in Satanoperca jurupari from the Jari River, state of Amapá, in eastern Amazon (Brazil). The gills of 100% of the hosts were parasitized by Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Protozoa), Sciadicleithrum juruparii (Monogenoidea) Genarchella genarchella, Posthodiplostomum sp. (Digenea) Ergasilus coatiarus and Argulus multicolor (Crustacea), and a total of 27,043 parasites were collected. However, the dominance was of I. multifiliis and there was aggregated dispersion of parasites with greater discrepancy for S. juruparii and A. multicolor. Low species richness of parasites (3.1 ± 1.1), low Brillouin diversity index (0.27 ± 0.23), low evenness (0.16 ± 0.13) and high dominance of Berger-Parker (0.88 ± 0.15) were found. The community of parasites in S. jurupari was characterized by low species richness, low diversity and low evenness, with high prevalence and low abundance. The size of host did not have any influence on the parasites community, but the host behavior and availability of infective stages of the parasites were factors structuring the community of ectoparasites found here.

Highlights

The Cichlidae represent one of the most species-rich and widespread families of fish distributed across the Americas, Africa, and Asia, with around 1700 valid species (VANHOVE et al, 2016), including Satanoperca jurupari Heckel, 1840, which is named as demon eartheater, eartheating devilfish or acará-bicudo
There is a dominance of I. multifiliis (Table 1) and aggregated dispersion of parasites, with higher discrepancy for S. juruparii and A. multicolor (Table 2)
The Kn of the host has shown no correlation with the abundance of I. multifiliis, S. juruparii, G. genarchella, E. coatiarus and A. multicolor, but, on the other hand, it has shown a weak correlation with the abundance of Posthodiplostomum sp

Summary

Introduction

The Cichlidae represent one of the most species-rich and widespread families of fish distributed across the Americas, Africa, and Asia, with around 1700 valid species (VANHOVE et al, 2016), including Satanoperca jurupari Heckel, 1840, which is named as demon eartheater, eartheating devilfish or acará-bicudo. It has a wide distribution in the Amazon River system, ranging from Peru, Ecuador and Colombia to the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil, in the state of Amapá and in eastern French Guyana, as well as in the Bolivian Amazon drainage, except for the Guaporé River (KULLANDER, 2003; FROESE & PAULY, 2017). Despite the importance of this fish for the Amazon region, little is known about its parasitic fauna

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