We observed the intestines of Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)and found several of these lodged in the intestine of the fish. It has a cream/ yellowish color and appears as "dots" within the intestine when seen with the naked eye. When viewed at 400x magnification it was moving as the fish were still alive prior to dissection. I am not familiar with this as we only observe Acanthocephalans most of the time. Is this a parasite or a part of some organism that the fish had ingested? Thank you.
Dear Cyrelle Besana,
Yes, it is a helminth parasite. Probably it is a metacestode (larval stage) of a member of the family Gryporhynchidae (Cestoda: Cyclophyllidea). The study of rostellar hooks can help you in the identification.
Best regards,
Hudson
Thank you very much for your answer, sir. I suspected that it was a cestode based on the presence of hooks. I have encountered this parasite several times while observing Tilapia intestines.
That looks like a larval gryporhynchid cestode, but may possibly be a diplostomid metacercaria,depending on whether it was encysted or not; but Im not sure about the genus and species. You need to fix the metacercariae with hot water then stain them with paracarmine or Mayer's haematoxylin so that we can establish at least the genus.
Thank you for your answer. I'll look into these suggestions when I encounter Tilapias again.
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