Yes it can be used as bio indicators for water quality specially for fish aquaculture where a huge mount of organic matter can be found there and also it will different according the type of feeding system of the aquaculture farm and depend on if is it seawater or freshwater system, so I think you can make classification for each type of aquaculture systems and make like atlas for all parasites to define it according to the water quality status and also you may define the strange one .

regrads

Jayanta,

Parasites have been used as bioindicators for many years. I have attached a few examples for you.

Tomas

Dear Jayanta, perfect question I recommend it. We can speak esp about the free-living stages of par. But for my opinion the spectrum of par. sensitivity is wider then their hosts! I have some reference in the issue. That depends of wider distribution than of hosts. But what I'm talking about are ecto-parasites and parasites with free living stages.

If we are speaking about intracellular parasites the question is much more complicated.  As example you can find in my site the paper with Prof. Mykola Ovcharenko from Poland about microsporidia parasites dependence on different large scale influences.

If par. are very numerical they can make the host thick and more sensitive to surround factors!

Andrey

Hi Jayanta,

Yes, you can. However, you have to be careful in choosing a parasite and interpreting your data afterwards. In some cases, changes in parasite intensity and/or prevalence does not necessarily represent deterioration in water quality. For example, some ectoparasites in tropical waters breed and increase in population during summer, a natural cycle that although is stimulated by temperature changes but does not necessarily mirror abnormalities in overall water quality and aquatic ecosystem health.

It can also be tricky with endoparasites.

Good luck!

 Thank you Andrey & Peter for striking the right chord. Biomonitoring of water quality and aquatic ecosystem health can be possible by the ecoparasites. The case of endoparasite as a tool for such monitoring is more complicated, practically unrealistic and debatable too! Friends of RG are requested to contribute your insightful thoughts, views, experience and resources pertaining to various aspects of this issue.

Looking forward

Jayanta

Parasites have been used as bioindicators for habitat types or areas, for years and for species hots using the indicator value methods , I have attached this files