Parasites of Fish from the Great Lakes - Great Lakes Fishery ...

Our analysis of the information and data from this synthesis of parasite studies conducted during
1871-2010 indicates that there is a close association between parasites and their specific fish hosts
or fish families within each Great Lake but not among the lakes. Only 32 parasite species
occurred in all the Great Lakes, and 49 parasite species infected fish from four of the five Great
Lakes. Furthermore, each Great Lake with its fish examined in the Centrarchidae, Cyprinidae,
Catostomidae, Percidae, and Salmonidae and their associated parasites “somewhat stand alone”
and are different from each other. In other words, the same fish species among the lakes do not
share many parasite species.
Lakes, Fish Faunas, and Parasite Communities
One approach to characterize the parasites of fish is to describe the helminth communities based
on the aquatic environment the fish occur in. Wisniewski (1958) suggested that the abiotic and
biotic characteristics of the body of water influence and determine the parasite fauna of fish, and
Dogiel (1962) proposed that the parasites found in fish are related to the food eaten. Esch (1971)
further developed these ideas by suggesting that the ecological succession of the aquatic
environment and the trophic level occupied by fish species are important in determing the
composition of their parasites. He proposed that as lentic environments undergo succession from
oligotrophy to mesotrophy to eutrophy the parasites of fish also change through time. He
collected data on only the helminth parasite species of centrarchids from oligotrophic Gull Lake
and eutrophic Wintergreen and Duck Lakes in Michigan. He reported that fish from the
oligotrophic system harbored a larger number of adult helminth species that complete their life
cycle in fish (autogenic species) and a smaller number of larval helminths, whereas fish in the
eutrophic lakes had a proportionately larger number of larval helminths which complete their life
cycles in piscivoruos birds and mammals (allogenic species).
That autogenic helminths predominate in oligotrophic lakes and allogenic helminths predominate
in eutrophic lakes is based on a premise, accepted by some aquatic parasitologists, that cold-water
lakes (oligotrophic systems) are relatively closed to the surrounding environment requiring that
most parasites obtain maturity in fish. On the other hand, fish in warm-water lakes (eutrophic
systems), where it has been suggested there is more aquatic-terrestrial or peripheral interaction
among organisms, will have more parasite species that mature in piscivorous birds and mammals
associated with the lake. If this is true, fish in cold-water lakes will have more autogenic helminth
species than allogenic species and vice versa in warm-water lakes.
In North America, cold-water lakes usually have a dominant salmonid fish fauna, whereas warmwater
lakes normally have a dominant centrarchid fish fauna. An intermediate lake type between
these two may have a more mixed population with percids (cool-water species) often dominant.
There is really a transition from cold-water to warm-water lakes. In theory, the maximum number
of parasite species of salmonids will occur in cold-water conditions and maximum number of
parasite species of centrarchids will occur in warm-water conditions.
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