Checklist of metazoan fish parasites of German coastal waters

Abstract

This checklist summarises information on metazoan fish parasites of German coastal waters contained in the available literature, including scientific journals, reports, and doctoral and master thesis from German universities. Information is presented in the form of fish-parasite and parasite-fish lists, organised according to the taxonomy of the fish and the parasites. A total of 62 different wild fish species from the North and Baltic Sea coast line are considered. The fishes inhabit 191 different named species of metazoan parasites (3.1 parasite species per fish species), belonging to the Taxa Myxazoa (13), Trematoda (68), Monogenea (18), Cestoda (28), Nematoda (25), Acanthocephala (13), Mollusca (1), Hirudinea (3) and Crustacea (22). Also included are reports of parasites not identified to the species level. Along the German North and Baltic Sea coast, 86 and 142 different parasite species have been detected in 45 and 46 fish species respectively. The fish-parasite list gives information on the parasites found, the locality, the site of infestation and the source. The parasite-fish list gives information on the names of the infested host species. The checklist demonstrates that in the German coastal waters along the North and Baltic Sea, mainly parasite generalists occur. Lowest host specificity is revealed by Hysterothylacium aduncum (Nematoda), podocotyle atomon (Trematoda), Echinorhynchus gadi (Acanthocephala), and Brachyphallus crenatus (Trematoda). The most frequently parasitised fish species in German coastal waters are Platichthys flesus (49 parasite species), Gasterosteus aculeatus (41), Gadus morhua (32), Pungitius pungitius (32), and Anguilla anguilla (26). This high amount of parasite species can be either explained by a generalistic feeding behavior on various invertebrates or by a piscivorous feeding behavior. Specialists such as Agonus cataphractus, Cyclopterus lumpus, Sygnathus rostellatus, and S. typhle harbour only few parasite species. The checklist again demonstrated the importance of fish parasites for marine biodiversity studiesSIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RN 3292(307) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman