Coral reef fish harbor an unexpectedly high biodiversity of...(ese monogeneans found in the New Caledon...)

A second investigation focused on the malabar grouper (Epinephelus malabaricus, mre loche). It confirmed the diversity of monogenean gill parasites of the New Caledonian coral reef. For this second grouper species, 11 species of associated monogeneans were identified among more than 300 collected from the gills of two malabar specimens The existence of a rich fauna of monogeneans in the New Caledonia grouper was therefore confirmed. The ensuing article gives a detailed list of 44 parasite species already recorded in the malabar grouper in the whole of the Pacific Ocean.

The malabar grouper has a high initial growth rate and the adult reaches 50 kg, making it a species highly prized by aquaculture operators in South-East Asia. Young malabar groupers are taken directly from their natural habitat in order to supply the fish farms. They are subsequently fattened up quickly, as are red tuna in the Mediterranean. As an example, the Thai production of this fish thus grew from 15 000 individuals in 1991 to 265 000 in 1995. Parasite control in such breeding conditions, where high density of fish populations favours high rates of parasite infection, is crucially important, as the parasitized specimens usually have a lower than average growth rate. Better knowledge of the parasite species present in wild malabar grouper populations could help improve rearing management.

The IRD Noumea research team also substantiated the hypothesis that reef fish in general have an especially rich parasite biodiversity. The New Caledonian coral reef harbours nearly 2000 species of fish. Extrapolation of these results to the whole of this Pacific islands coral reef yielded an estimated fish parasite biodiversity of about 10 000 species. Extrapolating again, to such an aquatic ecosystem at the global scale can certainly give a figure two or three times as larg
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