Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T00:48:11.913Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Some observations on the mass mortality of the freshwater fish Rutilus rutilus (L.)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

H. Harford Williams
Affiliation:
Commonwealth Bureau of Helminthology, St Albans, Herts.

Extract

From 24 May to 4 July 1961 about 12,000 roach, Rutilus rutilus (L.), died in a lake at Brynmill Park, Swansea, South Wales. Even this high figure may be an underestimate of the actual mortality rate as it is based entirely on extractions of dead fish from the surface waters by members of the Brynmill and District Angling Club, who used landing nets from the shore only, although at fairly regular intervals. The daily counts of dead roach are represented on a histogram (Text-fig. 1). It is also of interest that in the early summer of 1961 large numbers of roach succumbed in other regions of the British Isles; about 30,000 died in the River Trent, Derbyshire, and 3000 in the lake in St James's Park, London. Newspaper reports in both localities attributed the cause to a deficiency of oxygen. For the outbreak in South Wales, however, similar reports suggested that ‘white spot disease’ caused by the ciliated protozoan Ichthyophthirius was responsible for the mortality.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Claus, C. (1875). Ueber die Entwickelung, Organisation und systematische Stellung der Arguliden. Z. wiss. Zool. 25, 217–84.Google Scholar
Davis, H. S. (1956). Culture and Diseases of Game Fishes, pp. 1332. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Davis, W. S. (1956). American shad, Alosa sapidissima, parasitized by Argulus canadensis in the Connecticut River. J. Parasit. 42, 315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Debaisieux, P. (1925). Études sur les Myxosporidies. III. Myxobolus notatus Mavor. Arch. Zool. exp. gén. 64, 353–85.Google Scholar
Dogiel, V. A., Petrushevski, G. K. & Polyanski, Yu. I. (1961). Parasitology of Fishes, pp. 1384. (English translation.) Oliver and Boyd Ltd.Google Scholar
Ergens, R. (1959). Nálesy dalšich druhů Gyrodactylus Nordmann (Monogenoidea) v ČSR. Československá parasitologie, 6, 7385.Google Scholar
Fantham, H. B., Porter, A. & Richardson, L. R. (1939). Some Myxosporidia found in certain fresh water fishes in Quebec Province, Canada. Parasitology, 31, 177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fantham, H. B., Porter, A. & Richardson, L. R. (1940). Some more Myxosporidia observed in Canadian fishes. Parasitology, 32, 333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauré-Fremiet, E. (1943). Étude biometrique de quelques Trichodines. Bull. Soc. zool. Fr. 68, 158–69.Google Scholar
Goin, C. J. & Ogren, L. H. (1956). Parasitic copepods (Argulidae) on Amphibians. J. Parasit. 42, 172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyman, L. H. (1940). The Invertebrates. Vol. 1. Protozoa through Ctenophora, pp. 1726. New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc.Google Scholar
Hyman, L. H. (1959). The Invertebrates. Vol. 5. Small Coelomate Groups Chaetognatha, Hemichordata, Pogonophora, Phoronida, Ectoprocta, Brachiopoda, Sipunculida, The coelomate Bilateria, pp. 1783. New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc.Google Scholar
Kudo, R. (1929). Histozoic Myxosporidia found in fresh water fishes of Illinois, U.S.A. Arch. Protistenk, 65, 364–78.Google Scholar
Kudo, R. (1934). Studies on some protozoan parasites of fishes of Illinois. Illinois Biol. Monogr. 13, 744.Google Scholar
Kudo, R. (1954). Protozoology, pp. 1966. Fourth edition. Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A.: Charles C. Thomas.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laird, M. (1961 a). Urceolaria karyodactyla n.sp. (Ciliata: Peritricha) from Ischnochiton ruber (L.) at Saint Andrews, New Brunswick. Canad. J. Zool. 39, 827–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laird, M. (1961 b). Trichodinids and other parasitic protozoa from the intertidal zone at Nanaimo, Vancouver Island. Canad. J. Zool. 39, 833–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lom, J. (1958). A contribution to the systematics and morphology of endoparasitic trichodinids from amphibians, with a proposal of uniform specific characteristics. J. Protozool. 5, 251–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lom, J. (1960). Ectoparasitic trichodinids from fresh water fish in Czechoslovakia. Mém. Soc. zool. tchécosl. 25, 215–28.Google Scholar
Lom, J. (1962). Trichodinid ciliates from fishes of the Rumanian Black Sea coast. Parasitology, 52, 4961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucký, Z. (1959). Přispěvek k poznáni žábroklistů jižni Moravy, 11. Sbornik Vysoké Skoly Zemědělske a Lesnické v Brně. Řada B. Spisy Fakulty Veterinárni, 7, 353–77. (German and Russian summaries, 376–77.)Google Scholar
Mackinnon, D. L. & Hawes, R. S. J. (1961). An Introduction to the Study of Protozoa, pp. 1506. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Maclennan, R. F. (1939). The morphology and locomotor activities of Cyclochaeta domerguei Wallengren (Protozoa). J. Morph. 65, 241–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malmberg, G. (1956). Om forekansten au Gyrodactylus på svenska fiskar. Särtryak ur Skrifter utgiona av Södra Sveriges Fiskeriförening Årsskrift, pp. 176.Google Scholar
Mizelle, J. D. (1938). Comparative studies on trematodes (Gyrodactyloidea) from the gills of North American fresh water fishes. Illinois Biol. Monogr. 17, 181.Google Scholar
Mueller, J. F. (1932). Trichodina renicola (Mueller, 1931) a ciliate parasite of the urinary tract of Esox niger. Roosevelt Wild Life Ann. 3, 139–54.Google Scholar
Mueller, J. F. (1937). Some species of Trichodina (Ciliata) from fresh-water fishes. Trans. Amer. micr. Soc. 56, 177–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nigrelli, R. F. (1940). Mortality statistics for specimens in the New York Aquarium, 1939. Zoologica, N.Y., 25, 525–52.Google Scholar
Nigrelli, R. F. (1943). Causes of diseases and death of fishes in captivity. Zoologica, N.Y., 28, 203–16.Google Scholar
Nigrelli, R. F. & Atz, J. W. (1943). Biometry of puffers and their parasites. Zoologica, N.Y., 28, 18.Google Scholar
Parker, J. C. & Haley, J. A. (1960). Method for determination of the number of gyrodactylid trematodes parasitizing the skin of goldfish. J. Parasit. 46, 417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichenbach-Klinke, H. H. (1956). Trichodina dohrni n.sp. eine neue fischpathogene Ciliatenart aus dem Golf von Neapel. Z. Parasitenk. 5, 365–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeley, H. G. (1886). The Fresh-Water Fishes of Europe. London: Cassell and Co.Google Scholar
Sproston, N. G. (1946). A synopsis of the monogenetic trematodes. Trans. zool. Soc. Lond. 25, 185600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tripathi, R. (1948). A new species of ciliate, Trichodina branchicola, from some fishes at Plymouth. J. Mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 27, 440–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tripathi, Y. R. (1956). Studies on parasites of Indian fishes. III. Protozoa 2 (Mastigophora and Ciliophora). Rec. Indian Mus. 52, 221–30.Google Scholar
Tripathi, Y. R. (1959). Monogenetic trematodes from fishes of India. Indian J. Helminth. 9, 1149.Google Scholar
Wenyon, C. M. (1926). Protozoology, vol. 1, pp. 1778. London: Baillière, Tindall and Cox.Google Scholar
Wilson, C. B. (1902). North American parasitic copepods of the family Argulidae with a bibliography of the group and a systematic review of all known species. Proc. U.S. nat. Mus. 25, 635742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, C. B. (1904). A new species of Argulus, with a more complete account of two species already described. Proc. U.S. nat. Mus. 27, 627–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar