A Mass Mortality of Fishes in Lake Titicaca (Peru-Bolivia) Associated with the Protozoan Parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis

Authors

Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Utah State UniversityFollow
R. Alfaro

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society

Volume

117

Issue

2

Publisher

American Fisheries Society

Publication Date

1988

Keywords

mass mortality, fishes, Lake Titicaca, parasite, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis

First Page

213

Last Page

217

Abstract

In December 1981 , an epizootic of the protozoan parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis killed an estimated 18 million killifish Orestias spp. in Lake Titicaca, a high-altitude tropical system. Of the dead fish collected, 93% were adult O. agassii, a commercially important species that is abundant in the littoral zone. Juvenile Orestias spp., pelagic species, and some other littoral zone fis hes were slightly affected. lchthyophthirius multifiliis was probably introduced with exotic fishes brought to Lake Titicaca in the 1940s and 1950s.

Comments

Originally published by the American Fisheries Society.
Note: This article appears in the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society and has been posted here with permission from the publisher.