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	Home Upcoming Events Institutions & Organizations People Bays & Estuaries Reefs, Banks & Islands Environmental Issues General Facts about the Gulf Exploration History Other Online Resources Electronic Books Mexican Coral Reef Species Checklist InfoHub Site Search:		Parasite Presence in Cultured, Stocked and Wild Red Drum Sciaenops ocellatus in the Alafia River, Florida Project Tampa Bay is a multi-disciplinary, five-year stock enhancement assessment program. To date, over one million red drum Sciaenops ocellatus have been released into the Alafia River in Hillsborough County. The major concerns of any stock enhancement program are the impact that released fish may have upon wild stocks, the potential for parasite transfer, the difference in susceptibility of stocked fish to disease, and the ability of stocked fish to survive after release. As part of Project Tampa Bay, the Aquatic Health Group at the Florida Marine Research Institute monitors the health of cultured, stocked, and wild fish in the Alafia River. Wild and stocked red drum collected in the Alafia and cultured red drum sampled from the Stock Enhancement Research Facility ponds are diagnosed for the presence of seven target ectoparasites: Amyloodinium ocellatum, Ambiphrya sp., Ergasilus sp., Trichodina sp. and Trichodinella epizootica, and endoparasites: Ceratomyxa sp. and Scolex polymorphus. Preliminary results indicate that there are significant differences in parasite presence among cultured, stocked and wild red drum. Wild red drum tend to have a higher proportion of parasitized individuals as well as higher parasite loads. Cultured red drum have very few parasites. Stocked red drum, that are as disease and parasite free as possible on release into the wild, appear to accumulate the "wild-type" parasite load over time, suggesting that their habitat and diet after release become the same as that of wild fish. Principal Investigator(s) or Program Chair: , Julian, Marc D. Forstchen, Ann B. Reese, Ruth O. Sponsor(s): Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Institution(s): Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) Field of Focus: Parasites in red drum stock Study Site:   Alafia River, Florida Keywords:   Red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus, Parasite, Fish stock enhancement
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