Parasites of South African freshwater fish. VII. Nematodes of some scaled fishes from the Hartbeespoort Dam, Transvaal

Abstract

The nematode parasites of 16 large-scaled yellowfish, Barbus marequensis , six silverfish, Barbus mattozi, six small-scaled yellowfish , Barbus polylepis, 52 canary kurper, Chetia flaviventris , 11 carp, Cyprinus carpio , 45 Mozambique bream, Oreochromis mossambicus and a single-banded bream, Tilapia sparrmani, caught in the Hartbeespoort Dam, Transvaal, were collected, identified and counted. Contracaecum spp. larvae were recovered from one O. mossambicus, 40 Chetia flaviventris, three Cyprinus carpio, one B. marequensis and five B. mattozi, Rhabdochona esseniae from five B. marequensis, Rhabdochona spp. from one O. mossambicus and four Cyprinus carpio, and unidentified nematode larvae from two O. mossambicus, three Chetia flaviventris, two Cyprinus carpio and from the single T. sparrmani. Burdens in the infected fishes were generally small, and small-scaled yellowfish did not harbour any worms. Only Mozambique bream and canary kurper were caught at regular intervals, but even in these species no pattern of seasonal prevalence of the nematodes was evident.