Teerawuth Lerssutthichawal and Kitjakarn Supamattaya

pp. 333 - 345

Abstract

Twenty-one species from 16 genera of potentially cultured freshwater fish were examined for external
and internal parasites. Ten individuals of each fish species were sampled from various places in Nakhon Si
Thammarat. Eight groups, 72 species were identified and the majority was external (52 spp.). The parasites
found were ciliated protozoan (2 spp.), myxozoan (2 spp.), monogenean (44 spp.), digenean (7 spp.), cestode
(6 spp.), nematode (6 spp.), acanthocephalan (2 spp.) and crustacean (3 spp.). Monogenean was regarded as
a major group of parasites with 44 species. Dactylogyrus (Monogenea) had the highest number of species (12
spp.), whereas Trichodina pediculus (Ciliophora) was the most widely distributed species observed from at
least 7 fish species (7 families). Most of the parasites (72 %) found in this study were specific to their host
species.

Keywords

• fish parasites
• freshwater fish