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Neoheterobothrium hirame (Monogenea) alters the feeding behavior of juvenile olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus

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Abstract

We monitored feeding behavior and survival of starved juvenile olive flounder experimentally infected with the gill monogenean Neoheterobothrium hirame. Infected flounder increased amount of the time spent in the water column by 117% when trying to capture live mysids, Neomysis sp. They also showed different feeding patterns from those of uninfected fish and made fewer attacks towards prey during one feeding attempt. Although the average numbers of mysids captured by individuals were similar between infected and uninfected fish, heavily infected fish tended to catch less prey. These results indicate that N. hirame reduces the feeding efficiency of the host for capturing live prey and possibly makes them more vulnerable to predation during feeding. We could not detect any obvious difference in survival rates between uninfected, lightly and heavily infected fish during 3 months of starvation. There was no evidence that starvation makes fish more susceptible to N. hirame. The present study provides first experimental evidence that N. hirame affects feeding behavior of juvenile olive flounder and supports the idea that this parasite indirectly reducing the host’s survival and may be responsible for the recent reduction of the flounder population in Japan.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank staff members of Kamiura Station of National Research Institute of Aquaculture, especially K. Mori and T. Sugaya, for their generous supports, and also Shinpei Furuta of the Tottori Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station for advice on experimental methodology. Thanks are also due to D. Grabner and D. Kallert for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This work is supported by a grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to S.S. (JSPS 15-11317).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Zoology, Fish Biology and Fish Diseases, University of Munich, 80539, Munich, Germany

    Sho Shirakashi

  2. National Research Institute of Aquaculture, Fisheries Research Agency, Minami-Ise, Mie, 516-0193, Japan

    Toyohiro Nishioka

  3. Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Kazuo Ogawa

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  1. Sho Shirakashi
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  2. Toyohiro Nishioka
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  3. Kazuo Ogawa
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Correspondence to Kazuo Ogawa.

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Shirakashi, S., Nishioka, T. & Ogawa, K. Neoheterobothrium hirame (Monogenea) alters the feeding behavior of juvenile olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus . Fish Sci 75, 121–128 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-008-0011-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-008-0011-y

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