Ectoparasites of fishes from Soetdoring Nature Reserve

English: The Soetdoring Nature Reserve is situated on the banks of the Modder River northwest of Bloemfontein. The Krugersdrift Dam forms part of the reserve and supplies water to farmers in the lower reaches of the Modder River. Twelve fish species occur in the Modder River, of which two are introduced species. Specific objectives of the study was to determine the fish parasite diversity, and to establish if any introduced fish parasites are prevalent on the fishes from the Soetdoring Nature Reserve. During monthly surveys to the Soetdoring Nature Reserve from March 2001 to March 2002 fish were collected from three different localities in the reserve. A total of eight fish species were collected, although in low numbers. The parasites collected included ciliophorans, monogeneans and parasitic crustaceans. Six known species of mobiline ciliophorans were collected from fishes, i.e. Trichodina centrostrigeata Basson, Van As & Paperna, 1983, T. heterodentata Duncan, 1977, T. mutabilis Kazubski & Migala, 1968, Tripartiella /echridens Basson & Van As, 1987, T. /eptospina Basson & Van As, 1987 and Trichodinella epizootica (Raabe, 1950). Two species of sessiline ciliophorans were also collected, namely Apiosoma sp. A and Apiosoma sp. B. Representatives of the Monogenea collected included three new species, which were described as Dacty/ogyrus freistatensis n. sp., Dogie/ius capensis n. sp. and Paradip/ozoon modderensis n. sp. as well as two known species, i.e. Dactylogyrus extensus (Mueller & Van Cleave, 1932) and Quadriacanthus aegypticus EI-Naggar & Serag, 1986. The parasitic crustaceans included one branchiuran species, Argulus japonicus Muller, 1785, and one parasitic copepod, Lamprog/ena c/ariae Fryer, 1956. This study was first to examine the whole spectrum of ectoparasites found associated with fish.