Status, occurrence, intensity and impact of Argulosis in different brood stock ponds

Fish lice belonging to the genus Argulus is a hazardous ectoparasite for the hatchery farmers In order to understand the occurrence intensity and impact of Argulosis on carp fishes the present study was conducted in three Fish Seed Multiplication Farms Hatcheries such as Kashipur Farm Gouranadi Farm and Ujirpur Farm at Barisal District Bangladesh from November to April Highest infestation and intensity per fish ofArgulus sp were found in Ujirpur Hatchery followed by those in Gouranadi and per fish and Kashipur and per fish Species wise highest infestation and intensity per fish were found in Labeo rohita followed by Cyprinus carpio and per fish and the lowest in Cirrhinus mrigala and per fish Sex wise infestation and intensity of Argulus sp were always higher in the female carps than male and in all ponds L rohita had the highest rate of infestation than those in C carpio and C mrigala and the most infested carps always were the females Similar to the sex length wise highest prevalence and intensity of Argulosis were occurred in the largest size groups of carps and among them the highest infestation was in L rohita followed by C carpio and the lowest was in C mrigala The heavily infected fish experienced physical injury and showed abnormal swimming and blood oozing from the fish caused red skin lesions and then secondary infection took place by bacteria Aeromonas Pseudomonas and other parasites and fungi Argulosis delayed the fish production and near about production losses were occurred due to lower growth survival and production of infected carps in captivity nbsp