Endohelminth parasites of male and female tigerfish, <i>Hydrocynus vittatus</i> (Castelnau, 1861), from the Sanyati basin in Lake Kariba

Abstract

Tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus Castelnau, 1861) is of considerable importance in both the commercial and recreational fishery activities of Lake Kariba. In our previous paper (Mabika et al. 2019) we provided information on the seasonal occurrence of metazoan parasites of H. vittatus. This communication provides endohelminth infection statistics of male and female H. vittatus across two seasons not previously included. A total of 80 H. vittatus individuals consisting of 56 females and 24 males were examined for endohelminth parasites during the period October 2014–July 2015 in the Sanyati basin, Lake Kariba. Parasites were recovered from the abdominal cavity, mesentery and intestines. Most of the parasites were harboured in the abdominal cavity in both sexes. Parasite infection was more prevalent during the dry season in comparison to the rainy season for both sexes. Contracaecum larval infection was significantly higher in female (84%) than in male tigerfish (24%), whereas larval cestode infections were significantly higher in male tigerfish (59%) than female fish (16%). The mean condition factor of the male tigerfish (1.68) was not significantly higher than that of the female (1.64). The results of the study indicate that female tigerfish were more suitable hosts to Contracaecum larval infection than the male fish. Further parasitological and histopathological research on tigerfish is recommended to contribute to knowledge on endohelminth diversity and conservation.