a) In the Baltic have noted freshwater, brackishwater and marine parasites. The three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus has been a frequent fish in the Polish coastal zone. Because of its abundance, wide dispersion and its omnivorous nature the stickleback has been one of the most important host for parasites and sometimes a vector of parasites in food web of the Baltic. Twenty six species and glochidia were found on or in the stickleback. List of parasites detected in/on stickleback from the Southern Baltic (Middle Coast, Gulf of Gdansk and mouth of the Dead Vistula): Ciliata Trichodina domerguei, T. tenuidens, Microsporidia Glugea anomala, Monogenea Gyrodactylus arcuatus, Digenea Diplostomum spathaceum, Apatemon annuligerum, Phyllodistomum folium, Cestoda Proteocephalus filicollis, Schistocephalus solidus, Diphyllobothrium ditremum, Triaenophorus nodulosus, Bothriocephalus scorpii, Nematoda Eustrongylides mergorum, Anisakis simplex, Hysterothylacium aduncum, Raphidascaris acus, Ascarophis longispicula, Acanthocephala Neoechinorhynchus rutili, Echinorhynchus borealis, E. salmonis, Acanthocephalus clavula, A. lucii. Pomphorhynchus laevis, Hirudinea Piscicola geometra, Copepoda Thersitina gasterostei, Branchiura Argulus foliaceus. The differences in prevalence and intensity of parasites infestation were signed. Composition of same parasites on/in stickleback, prevalence and intensity were depended on the place of catching (west-east), e.g. hydrological conditions, like salinity and pollution, and proportion between groups of organisms which were intermediate hosts and also food items of the stickleback (food preferences). It was also the influence of the presence of predators, which ate stickleback and enabled parasites to finish their life cycles.
b) Anguillicola crassus has been a natural parasitic nematode of the japanese eel Anguilla japonica in Southeast Asia. This parasite was introduced to Europe in the 1980’s via the importation of live japanise eel. Prevalence and intensity are much higher in european ell Anguilla anguilla than in japanise eel. A. crassus was found in the Baltic and the coastal lakes in high prev. and int. and pathological effects have been observed which haven’t previously reported for japanise eel.
In recent years, Neogobius melanostomus (from the Black and Caspian Sea) has been a very abundant fish in the Gulf of Gdansk and Vistula Lagoon. We don’t known parasites of this fish and their potential to colonization of new hosts yet. |
