Occurrence of epibionts in coastal waters of Tamilnadu

Present study provides the distributional records of genera of protozoan ciliates namely Epistylis, Vorticella, Veginicola, Acineta and Tokophyra as epibionts got attached on the body surface of zooplankton such as Labidocera pectinate, Euterpina acutifrons, Pontella danae, Pontella securifer, Corycaus danae, Metis jousseawnei, Disticoulus minor, Lucifer hansei, Tortanus forcipes, Oithona rigida, O.brevicornis and Gastropod veliger collected from Tuticorin and Ennore coastal waters. Five genera of ciliates viz., three peritrichids and two suctorians, were identified and classified within the subclass Peritrichia: Epistylis Ehrenberg, 1830 (Epistylidae), Vaginicola Lamarck, 1816 (Vaginicolidae) and Vorticella Linnaeus, 1767 (Vorticellidae); and Suctoria: Acineta Ehrenberg, 1834 (Acinetidae) and Tokopluya Biltschli, 1889 (Tokophrydae). Data collected suggest that the epibiont attachment on copepods may have a significant impact on the health of the fish population due to the substantial reduction in the population density of the copepods leading to food scarcity for the fish populations which directly depend on them.