International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.10, 88-95
89
The Opecoelidae
Helicometrina nimia
(Linton, 1910) has been reported from marine fishes of the Pacific,
California, Chile, and Atlantic to Espiritu and coasts of Americas (Linton, 1910; Manter, 1940; Manter and Van
Cleave, 1951; Travassos et al., 1967; Inzunza et al., 1989).
Helicometrina nimia
(Opecoelidae) is a digenean with
wide distribution. More than 50 fish species belonging to 21 families in 6 orders have been registered as hosts of
H. nimia
along the coasts of the Americas.
Groupers,
Epinephelus
spp
.
represent one of the most important resources targeted by coastal fisheries and
aquaculture in Arabian Gulf (Smith, 1971).
Epinephelus tauvina
is a highly valued and widely distributed in the Arabian Gulf (El-Sayed et al., 2007). Saoud
et al
.
(1988) described
H. qatarensis
. According to Mittal and Pande (2007), the valid species of
Helicometrina
are
H. nimia
;
H. parva
Manter;
H. septorchis
Srivastava;
H. mirzai
Siddiqi and Cable;
H. quadrorchis
Manter and
Pritchard;
H. hexorchis
Gupta and Sehgal;
H. scomberi
Gupta and Jahan;
H. unicum
Gupta and Puri and
H.
chauhani
Mittal and Pande. The authors also presented a key to the species of genus based on the number of testes.
Hafeezullah (1971) register twenty eight specimens of the genus of
Helicometrina
from marine fish are in India
with different number of testes.
In addition to that Arabian Gulf revealed that described from different coasts, from Kuwaiti coasts a wide variety
of species were described (Al-Yamani and Nahhas, 1981; Nahhas et al., 1998; 2006). El-Naffar et al
.
(1992),
Kardoush (2003) also reported more than 20 species of digenetic trematode from the Emirati coasts. Some
scattered studies were also recorded from other coasts, including Saudi Arabia (Bayoumy et al., 2012) and Oman
(Machkevskyi et al., 2014) and Iraq (Bannai, 2002; Bannai and Essa, 2015; Bannai et al., 2005a; 2005b).
Where little attention was carried out about fish parasite in general and especially that of Arabian Gulf, Iraqi
marine water fishes. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the species’ parasites infecting.
1 Materials and Methods
Monthly fish samples were collected from Khor Abdullah, north west of the Arabian Gulf, during the years 2016,
a total of 20 fish specimens were collected from
P. argenteus
and a Total of 30 fish specimens were collected from
Greasy Grouper
E. tauvina
. Fishes kept in ice box and brought to the laboratory. Methods of relaxation, fixation,
staining and mounting of helminthes are basically those described by Roberts (2001). Each fish was opened and
the intestine was separated from the other visceral organs and placed in a Petri-dish containing physiological
saline and examined for parasites. The parasites were washed in a 0.6% saline solution and fixed in 70% ethanol.
They were stained with alum carmine, dehydrated and then cleaned in xylene and mounted in Canada balsam.
Drawings were prepared by camera Lucida. The specimens were deposited in the Department of Marine
vertebrate, Marine Science Center, University of Basra, Iraq. Parasites identification was done with the aid of
Yamaguti (1971) and Dr.Thomas Gribb Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, University of Queensland,
Brisbane 4072, Australia and aid of Dr. David Ian Gibson, Natural History Museum London.
2 Results
Trematode fauna currently occurs in Arabian Gulf fishes,
Monascus
sp. of
pampus argenteus
and
Helicometrina
nimia
from
Epinephelus tauvina
fishes.
1- Class: Digenea
Order: Bucephalata
Family: Fellodistomidae
Genus:
Monascus
Monascus sp.
(Figure 1)
Prevalence: 1
Mean intensity: 15%
Host:
pampus argenteus
Site of infection: intestine
