'Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi'
Abstract
Recently open sea cage farming has emerged as an
alternative and additional income source for fishermen
and fish farmers in India. Asian seabass, Lates calcarifer
is widely used in open sea cage culture due to its high
market demand. In cage farming, high stocking densities
and poor water quality enhance the parasite loads of
the cultured fishes. In this study, 47 specimens of Asian
seabass collected from cages located in Naganathwada,
Sunkeri, Ankola were analysed with the aim of identifying
the parasites prevalent among this species. All external
and internal organs of each fish were examined separately
under microscope for parasites. The collected monogenean
parasites were washed in a 0.85% saline solution and
fixed in 70% ethanol and identified. Most of the infected
fishes had dark coloration of the body and postmortem
findings revealed gills with excessive mucus secretion and
sticking of the gill tips with greyish coloration
