title: Egg laying strategies and effect of temperature on egg development of Argulus siamensis.
abstract: Argulus siamensis is the most damaging fish parasite prevalent in the freshwater aquaculture systems of India. In an attempt to further understand the behavior of this economically important parasite, the means of biological transmission, egg laying strategies and effect of temperature on development of eggs was studied. A. siamensis showed opportunistic egg laying behavior where in it used both living and non-living substrata for egg laying. It was marked that the parasites used the shells of freshwater snails of the family Viviparidae, the runners of the water weeds of genus Nymphoides and dead fish in the culture ponds for laying of eggs. This study confirmed that the maximum eggs were laid by the parasite in the habitat usage zone of the host fish. The optimum temperature for development of the eggs of A. siamensis into the infective naupliar stage and hatching was found to be 28 °C. These new insights into the behavior of A. siamensis would be helpful to devise biological control methods against the parasite.
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, 751 002 India.
authors.forename: Pramoda Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Sahoo
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, 751 002 India.
authors.forename: Jyotirmaya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mohanty
authors.affiliation: Regional Research Centre of CIFA, Hessarghatta, Bangalore, 560 089 India.
authors.lastname: Hemaprasanth
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, 751 002 India.
authors.forename: Banya
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kar
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, 751 002 India.
authors.forename: Bikash Ranjan
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Mohanty
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, 751 002 India.
authors.forename: Sushil Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Garnayak
authors.affiliation: National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Canal Ring Road, Dilkhusa, Telibagh, Lucknow, 226 002 India.
authors.forename: Joy Krushna
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Jena
keywords: Argulus siamensis; Biological transmission; Egg laying; Temperature