The food and parasites of fish in some deep basins of northern L. Päijänne

Abstract

The composition of the fish stock, food and ‘macroparasites’ were studied in eleven basins (22–100 m) of Lake Jyväsjärvi and North Päijänne in August–September 1976. The fishing was done by means of a series of nets (meshes 15, 21 and 35 mm) laid on the bottom overnight. No fish were found in the two northernmost basins owing to bad oxygen conditions caused by waste waters. Smelt and burbot were the most abundant fish in the catches in other basins but the vendace was rare. Relict crustaceans and some ‘deep water’ copepods (e.g. Heterocope borealis) played an important role in the food of fish in all basins.

Parasites spreading via relict crustaceans were abundant in smelt and burbot, but absent in vendace and ruffe. The most common parasite in smelt was Cystidicola farionis, in burbot Echinorhynchus borealis, in ruffe Triaenophorus nodulosus and in vendace the gill parasite Ergasilus sieboldi. Females of a relatively rare copepod Salmincola lotae were found in the oral cavity of five burbot (at depths of 50 and 100 m).