The caligid parasite Caligus coryphaenae has been reported in several marine fishes from Japan. In this study, a total of 223 wild yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata) were collected from Kagoshima fish market, separated into three groups according to total length (TL 70 cm), and examined for C. coryphaenae infection. A total of 518 specimens of C. coryphaenae were isolated giving an overall prevalence of infection and mean intensity of 24.2% and 4.7 ± 3.5, respectively. Body surface, fins and operculum of hosts TL > 50 cm were recorded as preferred sites for the attachment of C. coryphaenae. Of female specimens, 56.7% bore egg strings with various egg string lengths (7.1 ± 1.2 mm), carrying from 98 to 140 eggs (0.06 ± 0.005 mm in length) per each string. To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. coryphaenae infection from wild yellowtail in Japanese waters and globally. This parasite has not been reported in yellowtail culture to date, but the finding on wild specimens of yellowtail means that it poses a risk to their culture.
Examination of 35 barramundi (Lates calcarifer) from aquaculture cages in Setiu Wetland, Malaysia, revealed a single fish infected with three Henneguya spp. (Cnidaria: Myxosporea). Characterization of the infections using tissue tropism, myxospore morphology and morphometry and 18S rDNA sequencing supported description of three new species: Henneguya setiuensis n. sp., Henneguya voronini n. sp. and H. calcarifer n. sp. Myxospores of all three species had typical Henneguya morphology, with two polar capsules in the plane of the suture, an oval spore body, smooth valve cell surfaces, and two caudal appendages. Spores were morphometrically similar, and many dimensions overlapped, but H. voronini n. sp. had shorter caudal appendages compared with H. calcarifer n. sp. and H. setiuensis n. sp. Gross tissue tropism distinguished the muscle parasite H. calcarifer n. sp. from gill parasites H. setiuensis n. sp. and H. voronini n. sp.; and these latter two species were further separable by fine-scale location of developing plasmodia, which were intra-lamellar for H. setiuensis n. sp. and basal to the filaments for H. voronini n. sp. small subunit ribosomal DNA sequences distinguished all three species: the two gill species H. setiuensis n. sp. and H voronini n. sp. were only 88% similar (over 1708 bp), whereas the muscle species H. calcarifer n. sp. was most similar to H. voronini n. sp. (98% over 1696 bp). None of the three novel species was more than 90% similar to any known myxosporean sequence in GenBank. Low infection prevalence of these myxosporeans and lack of obvious tissue pathology from developing plasmodia suggested none of these parasites are currently a problem for barramundi culture in Setiu Wetland; however additional surveys of fish, particularly at different times of the year, would be informative for better risk assessment.