Parasitofauna of pike Esox lucius of the Lower Tobol (Russia)
Authors: Liberman E. L. , Voropaeva E. L. , Kozlov S. A. 
Published: November 2019

One of the predators of the ichthyofauna of the Lower Tobol is Esox lucius (Linnaeus, 1758) (Esociformes, Esocidae). The purpose of this work is to study the current state of the E. lucius parasite fauna in the lower reaches of the Tobol River. In the present study 47 individuals of the northern pike of different sex aged from 2+ to 8+ years were examined by the method of complete parasitological dissection. As a result of the research, 23 types of parasites were found in the pike. The largest number of species of parasitic organisms – 20 – were found in May, 12 were found in December and 11 in September. Of these, 10 species are specific to northern pike: Haemogregarina esoci (Nawrotzky, 1914), Chloromyxum esocinum (Dogiel, 1934), Myxidium lieberkuhni (Biitschli, 1882), Myxosoma anurum (Cohn, 1895), Henneguya psorospermica (Thelohan, 1995), Tetraonchus monenteron (Wagener, 1857), Gyrodactylus lucii (Kulakowskaja, 1951), Triaenophorus nodulosus (Pallas, 1781), Azygia lucii (Miiller, 1776), Raphidascaris acus (Bloch, 1779). For the first time an intraerythrocyte parasite – H. esoci – was found in pike in the Lower Tobol, the extensiveness of invasion was 18.7% in December, and 6.2% in May. Epistylis sp. and Trichodinella epizzotica parasitized on the surface of the body of fish only in May, whereas members of the genus Trichodina were found in winter and spring. In all seasons, parasitization by M. anurum and H. psorospermica was established on the gills. The greatest occurrence of spores of M. lieberkuhni and C. esocinum was observed in the spring. Myxosporidia parasitized in the kidneys and T. monenteron parasitized on the gills during all periods of the study (the latter with an extensivity of invasion of 100.0%). All examined fish are infected with T. nodulosus 100.0% of cases. In May, other types of cestodes were found: P. esocis and Dibothriocephalus latus. Three pike were infected with proteocephalis. The larval stage of diphyllobothriid was found in one fish in the liver and gonads in an amount of 139 individuals. In the pikes’ stomach, during all periods of the study, A. lucii was found in all the fish examined. In the autumn period of the study immature R. campanula were found in in the intestine of 4 fish specimens. The nematode R. acus was found in pike only in spring. This nematode was found in fish aged 4+–8+. In May, glochidia with a high intensity of invasion were found on fins, gill covers and gills of fish. E. sieboldi copepods were found on the gills; in May, one specimen was found in one pike and in September in 6 with AI of 0.7. Tetraonchus monenteron was a dominant species, in May its degree of dominance decreased with the greatest uniformity of species in this study period. Having considered the age dynamics of pike infection by various types of parasites, it was found that in the age group 4+–5+ the number of species of parasites was greatest (20), while in groups 2+–3+ and 6+–8+ it was 14. In the pike, the core parasitic fauna were M. anurum, H. psorospermica, T. monenteron, T. nodulosus, A. lucii. Seasonality has virtually no effect on the degree of infection with specific parasites. The age of fish largely determines the qualitative and quantitative composition of the parasite fauna.