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Morphological particularities of the head in four Carapidae (Ophidiiformes)

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... The fish of the Carapini tribe (Carapus sp. and Encheliophis sp., Carapidae) are able to penetrate and stay inside different invertebrate hosts such as echinoderms (sea cucumber, starfish) or bivalves. Stomach content analysis (Trott, 1970;Murdy and Cowan, 1980;Vanden Spiegel and Jangoux, 1989) and the musculo-skeletal descriptions of the buccal and pharyngeal jaws (Parmentier et al., 1999(Parmentier et al., , 2000a have suggested different kinds of symbiosis, depending on the species. Adults of Carapus species are commensal, using their host as a shelter and leaving it to hunt small prey, such as annelids, crustaceans (shrimp, decapod, amphipod) and small fish (Trott, 1970;Meyer-Rochow, 1979;Vanden Spiegel and Jangoux, 1989;Parmentier et al., 2000a,b). ...
... A y 15 N mean enrichment of 2.5x is observed between the holothurian gonads and E. gracilis muscles, which is in the same order of values reported previously between a predator and its prey (DeNiro and Epstein, 1978;Minigawa and Wada, 1984;Vander Zanden and Hulshof, 1998;Vizzini and Mazzola, 2002). These data strongly suggest that E. gracilis, in contrast to other carapids, could prey upon holothurian gonads, confirming results obtained by previous stomach contents studies (Smith, 1964;Trott, 1970Trott, , 1981Trott and Trott, 1972;Murdy and Cowan, 1980) and skull morphofunctional studies Parmentier et al., 1999Parmentier et al., , 2000b. The y 15 N (and y 13 C) trophic enrichment of a parasite relative to its host has also been reported for other types of parasites (Boag et al., 1998;Doucett et al., 1999), but is not systematic and some fish parasites (cestode, nematode, isopode, copepode) are even depleted compared to their host (Pinnegar et al., 2001). ...
... The fish of the Carapini tribe (Carapus sp. and Encheliophis sp., Carapidae) are able to penetrate and stay inside different invertebrate hosts such as echinoderms (sea cucumber, starfish) or bivalves. Stomach content analysis (Trott, 1970;Murdy and Cowan, 1980;Vanden Spiegel and Jangoux, 1989) and the musculo-skeletal descriptions of the buccal and pharyngeal jaws (Parmentier et al., 1999Parmentier et al., , 2000a,b) have suggested different kinds of symbiosis, depending on the species. Adults of Carapus species are commensal, using their host as a shelter and leaving it to hunt small prey, such as annelids, crustaceans (shrimp, decapod, amphipod) and small fish (Trott, 1970;MeyerRochow, 1979;Vanden Spiegel and Jangoux, 1989;Parmentier et al., 2000a,b). ...
... A y 15 N mean enrichment of 2.5x is observed between the holothurian gonads and E. gracilis muscles, which is in the same order of values reported previously between a predator and its prey (DeNiro and Epstein, 1978;Minigawa and Wada, 1984;Vander Zanden and Hulshof, 1998;Vizzini and Mazzola, 2002). These data strongly suggest that E. gracilis, in contrast to other carapids, could prey upon holothurian gonads, confirming results obtained by previous stomach contents studies (Smith, 1964;Trott, 1970Trott, , 1981Trott and Trott, 1972;Murdy and Cowan, 1980) and skull morphofunctional studies (Vandewalle et al., 1998;Parmentier et al., 1999Parmentier et al., , 2000b). The y 15 N (and y 13 C) trophic enrichment of a parasite relative to its host has also been reported for other types of parasites (Boag et al., 1998;Doucett et al., 1999), but is not systematic and some fish parasites (cestode, nematode, isopode, copepode) are even depleted compared to their host (Pinnegar et al., 2001). ...
Article
In the Moorea Lagoon (French Polynesia), the pearlfish Carapus boraborensis, Carapus homei, Campus mourlani and Encheliophis gracilis are generally found inside echinoderm hosts such as the holothurian Bohadschia argus and the starfish Culcita novaeguineae. At the end of their larval stage, these fish settle on the reef and directly enter their echinoderm host where they undergo an important metamorphosis. The aim of this study was to get further insight on the type of symbiosis (commensal vs. parasite) between these fish and their hosts. delta(15)N and delta(13)C measurements were determined in the tissues of invertebrate hosts (holothurians and starfish) and carapids (larvae, juveniles and adults). The obtained isotopic signatures reveal different kinds of associations: metamorphosing larvae, juveniles and adults of C. boraborensis and C. homei do not feed at all oil host holothurian tissues, C mourlani and its asterian host display a commensal relationship without any feeding association, while E. gracilis is likely to feed on the tissue of the holothurian. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
... and Encheliophis spp.) share a remarkable peculiarity: they are able to penetrate and live inside different invertebrate hosts such as echinoderms (holothurians, starfish) and bivalves (Fowler 1927, Tyler 1970, Trott and Trott 1972. Based on stomach content analysis (Trott 1970, Vanden Spiegel andJangoux 1989), morphological descriptions of the buccal and pharyngeal jaw apparatus (Parmentier et al. 1999(Parmentier et al. , 2000 and stable isotope analysis (Parmentier and Das 2004), some Carapus spp. and Encheliophis spp. ...
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At Makemo Atoll (French Polynesia), the carapid fish Onuxodon fowleri lives in symbiosis with the black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera. Although the symbiont seems to live inside its host bivalve by using it as a shelter, additional data are still needed to better understand the exact nature of this association. For this purpose, we implemented an approach using stable isotope ratios of carbon (13 C/ 12 C) and nitrogen (15 N/ 14 N). The δ 13 C and δ 15 N values were measured in tissues of the pearl oyster (gonads, gills, mantle and muscles), white muscle tissue from the fish and other food sources. This stable isotope approach was also complemented by the analysis of stomach contents in the carapid fish. Overall, the isotopic compositions measured in the present study support a commensal relationship between O. fowleri and P. margaritifera. In addition, our isotopic data bring new information about another guest living inside P. margaritifera, namely the palaemonid shrimp Conchodytes meleagrinae. Based on the δ 13 C and δ 15 N values, it appears that the shrimp might feed on the bivalve gonads.
... In Carapus and Encheliophis species, the penetration inside a sea cucumber is followed by heavy transformations during which the fish length is reduced by 60%. The stomach contents (Trott, 1970; Murdy & Cowan, 1980; VandenSpiegel & Jangoux, 1989) and the musculo-skeletal descriptions of the buccal and pharyngeal jaws (Parmentier et al. 1999Parmentier et al. , 2000aParmentier et al. , 2000b) have suggested different kinds of symbiosis depending on the species. Various authors have suggested that Carapus adults could be parasites (Arnold, 1953; Gustato, 1976; Trott, 1981) while others consider them as commensals, using their hosts as shelters and leaving them to hunt small preys such as annelids, crustaceans (shrimp, decapod, amphipod) and small fishes (Trott, 1970; MeyerRochow, 1979; VandenSpiegel & Jangoux, 1989; Parmentier et al., 2000a,b). ...
Conference Paper
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Amongst echinoderms, the Holothuroidea represents the class that is the most infested by parasites. Parasites of holothuroids are Bacteria, Protozoa and Metazoa. There are about 150 species of metazoans which parasite holothuroids. Most of them are turbellarians, gastropods, copepods, crabs or fishes. The main body compartments suffering of the infestations are the digestive system and the coelom. The diseases induced by metazoan parasites are mostly structural: they create galls at the surface of the epidermis, pierce the respiratory tree or dig into the body wall down to the coelom. Most metazoans that live in the digestive system do not induce obvious diseases and their relationship with their hosts is probably close to commensalism. Most Protozoa that parasite holothuroids are sporozoans. They occur mainly in the coelom and/or the haemal system, one species having been reported infesting the gonads. Even in heavily infested hosts, the signs of disease induced by sporozoans are low: at most, host haemal lacuna is occluded by trophozoites or cysts are formed into the coelomic epithelium. The most pathogen agents reported from cultured sea cucumbers are Bacteria. Cultivated holothuroids may suffer from a bacterial disease, called skin ulceration disease, that affects their body wall. In particular, juvenile Holothuria scabra reared in the Aqua-Lab hatchery of Toliara, Madagascar, suffered from such a disease that caused death within three days. The first sign of the infection is a white spot that appears on the integument of individuals, close to the cloacal aperture. The spot extends quickly onto the whole integument leading to the death of individuals. The lesions consist in a zone where the epidermis is totally destroyed and where collagen fibres and ossicles are exposed to the external medium. This zone is surrounded by a border line where degrading epidermis is mixed with connective tissue. Lesions include three bacterial morphotypes: rod-shaped bacteria, rough ovoid bacteria, and smooth ovoid bacteria. Three species of bacteria have also been put in evidence in the white spot lesions thanks to biomolecular analyses (DGGE and sequencing): Vibrio sp., Bacteroides sp., and an α-Proteobacterium.
... Its pelagic life, therefore, appears to be longer than that of the C. boraborensis tenuis. However, the adults of the latter attain a larger size (Markle and Olney 1990) and possess better developed dentition than C. homei adults (Parmentier et al. 1999). During the settlement phase, the morphology and dentition of the C. boraborensis tenuis are less developed than those of C. homei. ...
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Four species of adult Carapini (Carapidae) occur on Polynesian coral reefs: Encheliophis gracilis, Carapus boraborensis, C. homei and C. mourlani. Samples collected in Rangiroa and Moorea allowed us to obtain different tenuis (larvae) during their settlement phases or directly inside their hosts. These were separated into four lots on the basis of a combination of pigmentation, meristic, morphological, dental and otolith (sagittae) features. Comparison of these characters with those of the adults allows, for the first time, taxonomic identification of these tenuis-stage larvae.
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