Parasites of stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) from south-west of Caspian Sea

Abstract

Sturgeons are the most important fishes of Caspian Sea, but there are few reports about the pathogens of them in southern part of the Sea. in this survey, it has been attempted to indicate the parasite communities of Acipenser steflatus and their prevalence as well as their effects on the fish growth. In this survey 234 A. steflatus were caught from three different geographical locations including fisheries sections I. ii and a hatchery adjucent to Sephid Rud River (ill) in south -west of Caspian Sea (Guilan Province. iran).Common parasitology procedures were used for necropsy of the fish and recovery of parasites. The parasites were fixed in Buffererd Formalin (10%) and ethyl alcohol (70%), stained by Acetocarmine and then identified. Standard statistical computations (mean, Standard Deviation, range, prevalence and dominance) were calculated for the overall samples and for samples grouped by geographical location. The differences between groups defined by Z test and One Way Anova test (p