1. Zoothamnium duplicatum infestation of cultured horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus).
- Author
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Shinn AP, Mühlhölzl AP, Coates CJ, Metochis C, and Freeman MA
- Subjects
- Animals, Aquaculture, Chlorine pharmacology, Horseshoe Crabs growth & development, Horseshoe Crabs ultrastructure, Larva drug effects, Larva growth & development, Larva parasitology, Microscopy, Electron, Scanning, Oligohymenophorea drug effects, Oligohymenophorea isolation & purification, Horseshoe Crabs parasitology, Host-Parasite Interactions, Oligohymenophorea physiology
- Abstract
An outbreak of the sessile peritrich Zoothamnium duplicatum in a pilot, commercial-scale Limulus polyphemus hatchery resulted in the loss of ∼96% (40,000) second/third instar larvae over a 61day period. peritrich growth was heavy, leading to mechanical obstruction of the gills and physical damage. The peritrichs were controlled without resultant loss of juvenile crabs by administering 10ppm chlorine in freshwater for 1h and the addition of aquarium grade sand; a medium into which the crabs could burrow and facilitate cleaning of the carapace. Peritrich identity was confirmed from a partial SSU rDNA contiguous sequence of 1343bp (99.7% similarity to Z. duplicatum)., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2015
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