Abstract
Isopods Cymothoidae are organisms that parasitize several fish species, both marine and freshwater, provoking important physiological alterations and secondary infections. The genus Braga was proposed to harbor three species of parasitic isopods in freshwater fish from South America: B. brasiliensis, B. cichlae and B. nasuta . Posteriorly, other four species were included: B. patagonica , B. amapaensis , B. fluviatilis and B. bachmanni . Regarding the geographical distribution of the genus, there are registers in Brazil, Argentina, Suriname and Paraguay. In this study, 3,625 fingerlings of pirarucu Arapaima gigas were examined from a commercial fish farm in the Amazon region, Para State, to observe and identify possible parasites. A total of eleven ectoparasitic isopods were carefully removed from the body surface of the hosts and fixed in alcohol 70%. They were processed and identified as Braga nasuta . Parasitological indexes were prevalence of 0.303%, mean intensity of 1.000±0.000 and mean abundance of 0.003±0.055. This is the first report of B. nasuta in pirarucu fingerlings.
Highlights
Isópodes Cymothoidae Leach, 1818, has parasitic habits (Brusca, Coelho, & Taiti, 2001) and its morphological structures are prehensile pereopods provided by long claws, strong and curved, buccal pieces highly modified for parasitic life (Thatcher, 2006)
This study identified the isopods from the fingerlings of pirarucu cultured in earthen ponds from a fish farm located in the Amazon region, Pará State
Macroscopic observation revealed the presence of a total of eleven specimens of the isopod Braga nasuta from the ventral region close to pectoral fin and anus, collected from parasitized fingerlings (Figure 3)
Summary
Isópodes Cymothoidae Leach, 1818, has parasitic habits (Brusca, Coelho, & Taiti, 2001) and its morphological structures are prehensile pereopods provided by long claws, strong and curved, buccal pieces highly modified for parasitic life (Thatcher, 2006). 1881, with six species, which was firstly proposed to harbor parasitic isopods of freshwater fish from South America. According to Thatcher (2006), specimens of the genus can be found in tongue and operculum cavity of the hosts, they have symmetric body, cephalon little immersed in pereonite 1, all seven pairs of pereopods prehensile and provided with stout claw-like dactyls and pleotelson usually wider than long. In Brazil, these parasites were reported on the following hosts: B. amapaensis in the mouth of Acestrorhynchus microlepis from Amapá
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