Study on the Parasitic Infections of Aquarium Fishes around Tehran

Objective: Determination of parasitic infections of aquarium fishes around Tehran. Design: Random sampling. Animal: One thousnds and eight aquarium fishes.
Procedure: Parastitic infections of different organs including skin, gills, eyes, blood, alimentary canal, liver, kidney, abdominal cavity, muscle and swimming bladder in six different species: Barbus tetrazona (n=119),Betta splendens (n=170) Carassius autratus (n=101) Cichlasoma severum (n= 267), Gymnocorymbus ternetzi (n= 201) and Poecilia reticulata (n=150) were examined Blood samples were stained with Geimsa. were prepared for studying skin, gills, alimentary canal and other organs. Results: In spic of different infectious rates for different parasitic infections in examined fishes, total percentage of
infection for protozoa, arthropods and helminthes were 25.3%, 2.9% and 6.65%, respectively. Dactylogyrus vastator, Chiloldonella sp., Hexamita sp., Ictyobodo necator, Ichthyophtirius multifilis, Microsporidium , Myxosporida sp. Tricodina sp. and Lernaea cyprinicea were collected from 5 (83%) species. Furthermore Gymnocorymbus ternetzi was the least infected fish and Argulus foliaceus was the only parasite infective. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that the protozoal infections are very common among aquarium fishes. Although, no gross pathology was observed among infected fishes, but it is likely that in case of any changes in the environment, then parasites, become pathogen.