Abstract
Fish farms commonly support high abundances of invertebrates, especially amphipods, associated with fouling communities developed over nets, ropes and buoys. Protozoan epibiont ciliates of the genus Conidophrys were observed on three of the most abundant amphipod species collected from ropes of a fish farm in the western Mediterranean Sea. The amphipod species were Ericthonius punctatus that presented the epibiont Conidophrys pitelkae, and Jassa marmorata and Jassa slatteryi with the epibiont C. pilisuctor. The epibionts were found in numbers fluctuating between 1 and 119 individuals in Jassa spp. (median value = 8), higher than the number of epibionts found on E. punctatus that varied between 1 and 39 individuals (median value = 3). The epibiosis on Jassa spp. also showed prevalence values (34.33 %) superior to those of E. punctatus (24 %). Differential distribution of the epibiont species on the surface of basibionts was detected: Conidophrys pilisuctor were more frequently found on the head and gnathopods of Jassa spp., while C. pitelkae were mainly counted on the head of E. punctatus. This is the first time that Conidoprhys were found on these amphipod species.
Highlights
Epibiosis is a facultative association of two organisms: the epibiont and the basibiont
7 A trophont of C. pitelkae attached to the surface of the Ericthonius punctatus
TEM images of C. pilisuctor on the surface of Jassa spp., showed the cytostomal apparatus of this ciliate, which penetrated into the lumen of the cuticle basibiont
Summary
Epibiosis is a facultative association of two organisms: the epibiont and the basibiont. The term “epibiont” includes organisms that, during the sessile phase of their life cycle, are attached to the surface of a living substratum, while the basibiont lodges and constitutes support for the epibiont. Both concepts describe ecological functions [38, 41]. The epibiont species on crustacea can belong to Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Nemertea, Rotifera, Nematoda, as well as Polychaeta, Cirripedia, Decapoda, Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Phoronida, Bryozoa and Ascidiacea [20] This association implies a protection and support for the epibiont, and a great number of interactions (trophic, ecological, dispersive, etc.) and important effects on the partners of this relationship. The genus Conidophrys, belonging to this order, has been found on several crustacean species, mainly amphipods and isopods
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