X National Meeting of Italian Association of Veterinary Pathology (AIPVet), Giulianova Lido (Teramo, Italy), 29-31 May 2013

Non-lethal infestation by praniza larvae (Crustacea, Isopoda, Gnathiidae) in a Mediterranean marine ornamental aquarium
Arbuatti Alessio1, Della Salda Leonardo2, Romanucci Mariarita2
practitioner, Mozzagrogna (Chieti, Italy) 2Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, Italy
1Veterinary

Introduction
Ornamental fish are the most popular pets in Italy (about 60 millions of bred specimens), since aquarium management appears to be a particularly loved hobby that supports a millionaire marketing. In addition to home aquariums, there are numerous public and private aquariums open to the public and based on the modern concept of edutainment, i.e. education + entertainment. Despite the modern veterinary, biological and technological knowledge have improved animal welfare in properly managed aquariums, 90% of captive-bred fish deaths are due to various kinds of stressors originating from an improper management of the aquarium system.

Materials and Methods

The involved aquarium was composed of a pentagonal, 500 L tank (Fig.1), active from 3 years, equipped with a filtration and recirculation system (Fig.2) located within the below sump, containing a skimmer Lg.500, a biological filter and a chiller Resun 500. Partial water changes (20%) were performed every 3 weeks using natural marine water caught at a depth of 80-90 cm. The hosted fauna included: 1 moray eel (Muraena helena, Linnaeus 1758) 80 cm in length, 1 dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus, Lowe 1834) 38 cm in length, some specimens of genus Blennius, small crustaceans of genus Palaemon and marine invertebrates such as Actinia equina (Linnaeus, 1758) and Anemonia sulcata (Pennant, 1777). Feeding was performed every 2 days, periodically using even small, live or freshly caught fish such as saddled seabreams (Oblada melanura) (Linnaeus, 1758), wrasses (Symphodus spp.) and small mullets (Mugil spp.). First parasite detection concerned the observation of a single specimen attached to the perioral area of the moray (Fig.4); the number of observable parasites progressively increased, showing variable size (from 1mm to 2-3mm) and localization on fish body (Fig.3-5). Some parasitic bodies were caught by aspiration for direct observation, identification and iconographic documentation.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Results

Fig. 7: Gnathiid praniza larva (about 2.5mm in length). Fig. 5 Fig. 3

The infestation lasted for about 3 months: most of parasitic bodies were attached to the eye rims of grouper (Fig.3,5) and the perioral zone of moray (Fig.4), while no parasites were observed on blennies and crustaceans. Affected fish did not show signs of appetite loss; however, the parasiteinduced discomfort was suggested by their frequent rubbing on the rocks. Parasites were toughly attached to the host skin and constantly showed a whitish colour during the hours of artificial lighting. As a result of parasite detachment, mild lesions represented by abrasions and areas of depigmentation were observed on fish skin (Fig.6). Parasitic bodies were identified as praniza larvae of Gnathiidae (Crustacea, Isopoda) (Fig.7),

presumably belonging to the genus Gnathia, which includes the most of known species. The gradual disappearance of infestation, without relapses, was obtained as a result of one or both of the actions carried out by the aquarist. The first one consisted of adding water from a kalkwasser system in order to increase pH. The second intervention, likely the most effective for therapeutic purposes, was represented by the introduction of 30 specimens of wild Lysmata seticaudata (Risso, 1816), the so-called Mediterranean "cleaner shrimp" (Fig.8).

Fig. 8

Fig. 4

Fig. 6

Gnathids (Isopoda, fam. Gnathiidae) are crustacean ectoparasites of a number of both teleost and elasmobranch species worldwide. To date, however, there are no literature reports of Muraena helena infestation. The biological cycle, which lasts about 62 days, is composed by a free-living, usually benthonic, adult stage and a complex larval phase, consisting of 3 unfed (zuphea) stages and three fully fed (praniza) stages. Praniza larvae are usually found attached on skin, buccal cavity or gills, and feed with blood and/or lymph (Smit and Davies, 2004). Their pathogenic capability is related to anaemia due to haematophagia, tissue damage predisposing to electrolyte imbalances or secondary infections (Marino et al., 2004), and a potential vector role of protozoan parasites such as Haemogregarina spp. (Davies and Smit, 2001). However, observable lesions are variable, being sometimes irrelevant, as in our case, or severe, with high mortality (Diniz et al., 2008). Gnathid infestation may represent a serious problem for public aquariums with direct seawater acquisition and the solution is represented by filtration treatments with UV and ozone generators of seawater collected in storage tanks. For domestic aquariums, the use of osmotic water reconstituted with salts sold in special stores is recommended. Introduction of correctly quarantined new fish is in any case a fundamental step to prevent parasite infestations. As regards the correct therapy, it must also include a treatment of the aquarium environment housing the hardly visible adult stages, which can be performed by pharmacological treatments and biological control (Noga, 2010). In our case, the addition of water from kalkwasser system to increase pH may have contributed to parasite disappearance. However, an abrupt increase in water pH, able to cause parasite death, would have probably caused some damages in the other crustaceans and invertebrates, as well as fish, housed within the tank, which did not show any alteration. More important for therapeutic purposes appears to be the introduction of "cleaner shrimps (Fig.8,9), which feed on fish by removing small flaps of skin, food debris and parasites. Some species of shrimp are known to remove Gnathids from tropical fish skin (Becker and Grutter, 2004) and a similar event may be occurred in our case, although a direct contact between shrimps and parasitized fish was not observed during daylight hours. The efficacy of the treatment may be particularly assumed by the absence of infestation recurrence during the following years, which suggests the elimination of both larval and adult stages.

Discussion

Fig. 9: Some Lysmata seticaudata in cleaning phase on the moray muzzle (By courtesy of Protected Marine Area of Portofino (Italy) A. Serafini photo).
Becker JH, Grutter AS (2004) Coral Reefs 23: 515-520. Davies AJ, Smit NJ (2001) Folia Parasitol 48: 169177. Diniz et al. (2008) An Acad Bras Cienc 80: 657-664. Marino et al. (2004) Dis Aquat Org 59: 43-47. Noga EJ (2010) Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment. 2nd Edition, WileyBlackwell. Smit NJ, Davies AJ (2004) Adv Parasitol 58: 289-391.

References

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Livio Macera for kind cooperation.