parasites of offshore big game fishes of puerto rico - Uprm

COPEPODA (COPEPODS)
threats to food fishes because of their ability to move about on the host and
swim to and congregate on weakened hosts. Most copepods are permanent
parasites that do not change hosts in the wild, but some in this genus apparently
swim between hosts. His vision adequately describes some of the copepod
problems in modern cage culture of marine fishes, particularly salmon,
yellowtail, amberjack and possibly dolphin.
All of these copepods on big game fishes are sufficiently large to cause
damage, but seldom occur in numbers higher than a few on a host. Most do not
attach in one place and erode a site, but move around on the host. We know of
no cases of obvious damage to big game fishes, although all parasites cause
minor damage. They could be of more significance to sport fishes by their use
as biological tags. Unfortunately, the early literature is so confused, and
examinations by modern copepod people are so limited, that sufficient
information is lacking to properly understand these "biological tags." We
expect that few are strictly host, genus, family or region specific, but some may
be close enough to use as biological tags.
Margolis, Kabata and Parker (1975) provided a synopsis of the world literature
on this genus and Cressey (1991) surveyed those in the Gulf of Mexico.
Caligus balistae Steenstrup and Lütken
This copepod is rarely transmitted to dolphins as
a false host from sargassum triggerfish that they eat.
Beyond this curious example of prey-to-predator
transfer, it has no significance to big game fishes.
Name - The species name would more logically
represent the family of the principle hosts
(Balistidae), but it was actually named for the genus
of the unknown original host (Balistes sp.). Caligus
alatus Heegaard, C. canthidermis Yamaguti and
Yamasu, C. polycanthi Gnanamuthu, and C. sensilis
Kabata and Guzev are synonyms.
Diagnostic Characters - It has a series of wrinkles
in the dorsal cephalosome between the lunules. The
cephalosome is about 1/2 of the body length, the
lunules are moderately separated. The genital
complex is rectangular, about 1/2 to 2/3 as wide as
the cephalosome. The 1-segmented abdomen is short, less than 1/2 the length
of the genital complex. The orange egg strings are longer than the body.
Records - One female occurred on 1 of 20 dolphin off La Parguera, Puerto
Rico. Cressey (1991) also found a female on a dolphin from either the southern
USA or the northeast coast of South America. It was also reported once from
bluefin tuna (as C. calistae, a misspelling).
Geographic Range - Worldwide. Puerto Rico is a new locality and Williams,
Bunkley-Williams and Rand (1994) noted this copepod for the first time off
Bermuda.
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