Parasites of Barbus species (Cyprinidae) of southern Africa

English: The fish family Cyprinidae is represented by eight genera and 80 species in southern African rivers, consisting of a few large fish genera of the genus Labeo Ruppëll, 1836 and the yellow fish species Labeobarbus Cuvier, 1817. The majority of the cyprinids are, however, small e.g. Barbus Cuvier & Cloquet, 1816. Many species are endemic, often restricted to a single river, endangered and at least two species are critically endangered. This study focused on the parasite diversity of Barbus in southern Africa. Fish parasitological surveys were conducted within the Orange-Vaal, Pongola and Okavango River systems. During the study 23 different parasite species were identified from 18 Barbus fish species. These parasites belong to different parasite groups, i.e. Ciliophora Doflein, 1901, Myxozoa Grassé, 1970, Monogenea (Van Beneden, 1858), Cestoda and Trematoda Rudolphi, 1808. Two possible new myxozoans, three monogeneans and two cestodes, with one of the latter possibly new a genus, were found. The results showed low intensities of infections and no obvious pathology was observed in the infected fish. Parasites normally have little negative impact on their hosts under natural conditions, but the knowledge gathered is widely recognised for the ornamental fish trade and for the contribution to biological diversity. This study contributes to the biodiversity, taxonomy, distribution and abundance of the symbionts found associated with Barbus species.