Reproductive strategies of the insidious fish ectoparasite, Neobenedenia sp. (Capsalidae: Monogenea)

PLoS One. 2014 Sep 29;9(9):e108801. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108801. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Fish monogeneans are lethal parasites in aquaculture. We provide the first experimental evidence that a notorious fish monogenean, Neobenedenia sp., can produce viable eggs in isolation for three consecutive generations. We infected individual, isolated, farmed barramundi, Lates calcarifer (Bloch) with a single oncomiracidium (larva) of the hermaphroditic monogenean Neobenedenia sp.. Isolated parasites reached sexual maturity at day 10 post-hatch (24°C, 35‰) and laid ∼3,300 embryonated eggs over 17 days [corrected]. Egg production rapidly increased following sexually maturity on day 10 (58±15 eggs) and peaked on day 15 (496±68 eggs) before gradually decreasing. Neobenedenia sp. exhibited egg laying and egg hatching rhythms. Parasites laid eggs continuously, but egg production increased in periods of darkness (64.3%), while the majority of oncomiracidia (81%) emerged from eggs in the first three hours of light. Eggs laid by isolated 'parent' parasites hatched and individual emerging oncomiracidia were used to infect more individual, isolated fish, with three consecutive, isolated, parasite generations (F1, F2 and F3) raised in the laboratory. Infection success and egg hatching success did not differ between generations. Our data show that one parasite, in the absence of a mate, presents a severe threat to captive fish populations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Darkness
  • Fertility
  • Models, Biological
  • Ovum / physiology
  • Parasites / physiology*
  • Perciformes / parasitology*
  • Platyhelminths / isolation & purification
  • Platyhelminths / physiology
  • Reproduction / physiology

Grants and funding

This work was funded by an AusAID Scholarship (www.ausaid.gov.au) awarded to TDH. The Australian Society for Parasitology (http://parasite.org.au/) provided a Student Travel Award for TDH to present this research at the annual conference in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia in 2012. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.