<Emphasis Type="Italic">Neoheterobothrium hirame</Emphasis> (Monogenea) alters the feeding behavior of juvenile olive flounder <Emphasis Type="Italic">Paralichthys olivaceus</Emphasis> |
| |
Authors: | Sho Shirakashi Toyohiro Nishioka Kazuo Ogawa |
| |
Institution: | (1) Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Zoology, Fish Biology and Fish Diseases, University of Munich, 80539, Munich, Germany;(2) National Research Institute of Aquaculture, Fisheries Research Agency, Minami-Ise Mie, 516-0193, Japan;(3) Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan |
| |
Abstract: | We monitored feeding behavior and survival of starved juvenile olive flounder experimentally infected with the gill monogenean
Neoheterobothrium hirame. Infected flounder increased amount of the time spent in the water column by 117% when trying to capture live mysids, Neomysis sp. They also showed different feeding patterns from those of uninfected fish and made fewer attacks towards prey during
one feeding attempt. Although the average numbers of mysids captured by individuals were similar between infected and uninfected
fish, heavily infected fish tended to catch less prey. These results indicate that N. hirame reduces the feeding efficiency of the host for capturing live prey and possibly makes them more vulnerable to predation during
feeding. We could not detect any obvious difference in survival rates between uninfected, lightly and heavily infected fish
during 3 months of starvation. There was no evidence that starvation makes fish more susceptible to N. hirame. The present study provides first experimental evidence that N. hirame affects feeding behavior of juvenile olive flounder and supports the idea that this parasite indirectly reducing the host’s
survival and may be responsible for the recent reduction of the flounder population in Japan. |
| |
Keywords: | Condition factor Feeding Neoheterobothrium hirame Paralichthys olivaceus Starvation |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|