The round goby, Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1811) was introduced into
southern Baltic waters (including the Vistula Lagoon) from the Black Sea and
Sea of Azov in the early 1990s. This study describes the parasites of the
round goby in its new environment. In 2004, 486 round goby specimens
from the Vistula Lagoon were examined for parasites. The following taxa
were identified: Dermocystidium sp.; Protozoa: Trichodina domerguei domerguei
(Wallengren, 1897); Digenea: Cryptocotyle concavum (Creplin, 1825), Diplostomum
spp., Tylodelphys clavata (Nordmann, 1831), Bunodera luciopercae (M¨uller, 1776);
Cestoda: Bothriocephalus scorpii (M¨uller, 1776), Eubothrium crassum (Bloch,
1779), Paradilepis scolecina (Rudolphi, 1819), Proteocephalus filicollis (Rudolphi,
1802), P. gobiorum Dogel et Bychovsky, 1939, Proteocephalus sp.; Nematoda:
Anguillicola crassus Kuwahara, Niimi et Itagaki, 1974, Camallanus truncatus
(Rudolphi, 1814), Contracaecum spp., Cystidicoloides ephemeridarum (Linstow,
1872), Dichelyne minutus (Rudolphi, 1819), Hysterothylacium aduncum (Rudolphi,
1802); Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchus gadi M¨uller, 1776, Pomphorhynchus laevis
(M¨uller, 1776). The parasites found were all local species, already reported
from Poland. Except for Dermocystidium sp., C. concavum, P. gobiorum, and
D. minutes, they have already been recorded in other fish species in the Vistula
Lagoon. The prevalence and mean intensity of infection was low (18.3%; 4.0
indiv. – this value does not include ciliates). The most frequent parasites
included H. aduncum (9.9%, 1.2 indiv.) and A. crassus (9.1%, 1.2 indiv.). In addition, Dermocystidium sp., B. luciopercae, E. crassum, P. scolecina, P. filicollis,
C. truncatus and C. ephemeridarum are reported from the round goby for the first
time. As the fish has only recently appeared in the Vistula Lagoon, its parasitic
fauna has not yet developed to the full.
