Parasites of the green jack Caranx caballus (Pisces: Carangidae) in three locations from Pacific coasts of Mexico, and their utility as biological tags

Abstract

Parasites are known to be useful as biological tags in distinguishing fish stocks, but the parasite fauna method has received limited use in the fisheries of Mexico. Parasite fauna composition and their infection levels were quantified for Caranx caballus populations at 3 locations on the south central Pacific coast of Mexico. Three hundred eighty-eight fish were collected and examined between December 2009 and February 2012. Twenty-four species of parasites were identified: 2 monogeneans, 6 digeneans, 1 cestode, 5 nematodes, 8 copepods, and 2 isopods. At the component community level, species richness of parasites varied significantly from 9 to 18 (in 2011 and 2012, respectively, for Acapulco Bay), and was similar to previous reports for other species of Carangidae. The component communities and infracommunities of C. caballus exhibited a similar pattern: low species numbers, low diversity, and dominance by a single species. Multivariate discriminant analysis used to distinguish between the C. caballus populations, indicated that each location can be considered as a different fish stock, and that C. caballus, therefore, does not migrate between the studied locations, even though they are close from each other.