Richness and diversity of helminth parasite communities in the common carp and in three more recently introduced carp species

Abstract

It can be predicted that common carp Cyprinus carpio, as an introduced species, would harbour poor helminth infra‐communities but that these would nevertheless be richer than those in three other species of carps introduced into Europe in recent decades. These predictions were tested by comparing the helminth infra‐communities of common carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and Aristichthys nobilis reared under similar conditions in a fish farm. Data were presented on species richness of total helminth infra‐communities, and on richness and diversity of gill, eye and intestinal infra‐communities separately. These confirmed that common carp helminth infra‐communities were poor and that they were no richer than those of the three other species of carp. This situation in the farm was considered to be representative of the situation in natural habitats in Europe. It is suggested that the poor infra‐communities in common carp reflect the facts that their helminth communities are composed mainly of specialists, that they are not readily susceptible to invasion by specialists of other fish hosts and that, as introduced species, they have not had sufficient time to acquire many generalist helminths from native species of fish. The difference in time between the introduction of common carp into Europe centuries ago and the introduction of the other three species of carps decades ago is not sufficient to produce any significant differences in the richness and diversity of their helminth infra‐communities.