I am an undergraduate biology student.
Recently I was advancing an academic project, on the presence of protists in the gastrointestinal microbiota of freshwater fishes. I found in the intestine of Prochilodilus magdalenae something that seems to be a parasite but I have had difficulties with its identification.
I attached a picture of a fish stomach content sample stained with lugol. I think it is a type of flatworm egg but I'm not sure and I don't want to rule out the possibility that this is a Protist.
Does some has some idea of what is that?
Dear Fabian,
Please find the useful information from following link and i think it would fulfill your answer
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_series_common_freshwater_fish_parasites
http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/fisheries/parasites
Structure of organism is not clear. It could be eggs of fish. If you observed motion under microscope, it could be stages of nematode
It looks like there could be suckers, but too hard to tell. Can you stain them and take micrographs at a higher magnification? If you suspect there may be hard parts (hooks for example) Gomori's trichrome works great, too. I'd also recommend looking over the known intestinal parasites of your particular fish species. That's a great starting point so the task is less overwhelming.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Zoology
- Ichthyology