A First Survey of Metazoan Parasites in the Fishes of Lake Powell, Utah

Abstract

Lake Powell (Colorado River drainage, Utah and Arizona, USA) is an important and unique fishery comprising several nonnative fishes. There are no previous studies of the parasites of the fishes of Lake Powell. We provide a general survey of the metazoan parasites found in the numerically dominant fish species of the reservoir. We collected and surveyed for parasites in 236 fishes of 8 species. We found 832 parasites comprising 13 species. All of the parasite species we found are widespread throughout North America and other parts of the world. Six of the 13 species of parasites we found have been documented previously in the Colorado River system. In general, benthic-feeding fishes exhibited higher parasite richness and intensity compared to pelagic-feeding fishes. This study serves as a baseline for parasite community studies in Lake Powell and can provide a comparison for future studies.