Abstract
Fish parasitology is an indispensable tool in aquatic health studies and a basic understanding of richness of a community parasitism in many localities is essential for instituting control. Many copepod parasites are ecto-parasites which negatively affect the appearance and reduced production of species of economically important fish, both from the wild and fish farms, thus making them difficult to market. In this study, copepod parasitic investigation was carried out in gills of 856 fish mugilidae (Mugil cephalus and Liza falcipinnis) in three stations (Ganvie, Djdje and Zogbo) of Lac Nokoue lagoon. In the three stations, three species of parasitic copepod were found: Nipergasilus bora, Ergasilus latus and Ergasilus lizae. The highest total percentage copepod prevalence was found in Ganvie (86.23%) and the least in Djdje (63.14%). There is significant difference (P<0.05) in the rate of infestation of L. falcipinnis at Djdje than the other two stations, where as M. cephalus shows no significant difference in the rate of infestation in the three stations. The research reveals higher number of parasite copepods during the rainy season. Key words: Copepod parasites, Mugilidae fish, Lac Nokoue Lagoon.
Highlights
Even though spawning can be induced on an environmental basis, mullet farming still depends on fry or fingerlings stocked from natural water
The Ganvie area is located at the northern part of the lake Nokoue lagoon, near the floating village of Ganvie where the water is characterised by a high level of organic pollution (Laleye et al, 2003)
Both in the rainy and dry season, the salinity levels were lowest in station 1 (Ganvie) with 0 and 11.4 parts per thousand, but highest in station 2 (Djdje) with 0.8 and 29.5 parts per thousand salinity levels respecttively
Summary
Even though spawning can be induced on an environmental basis, mullet farming still depends on fry or fingerlings stocked from natural water. This fact combined with behaviour of mullets, promotes disease including parasite infestation (Paperna and Overstreet, 1981). This results in constant dissemination of disease-causing agent between cultured and natural population of mullet. Lake Nokoue is the largest coastal lagoons and the most productive brackish water body in Republic of Benin (Laleye and Moreau, 2004). Majority of fish production (fish mugilidae inclusive) come
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