INFESTAÇÃO EXPERIMENTAL DO ECTOPARASITA PERULERNAEA GAMITANAE EM COLOSSOMA MACROPOMUM (CUVIER, 1818) NA AMAZÔNIA BRASILEIRA

Commercial fish farming has many losses due to diseases, and parasitic diseases account for a large share of the losses. In the North region, there are few studies on sanitation in fish farming. Therefore, the objective of this research was to develop a protocol for experimental infestation of Colossoma macropomum (tambaqui) with the ectoparasite Perulernaea gamitanae. The experiment was carried out at the Federal University of Rondônia, Presidente Médici campus. The fish were conditioned in experimental units (polyethylene boxes and aquaria), in a system of constant aeration and weekly water renewal, where they received as food a commercial feed, twice a day. The experimental process was performed in two stages. The first step consisted in comparing the development of the parasite, in off-farm cultivation in a BOD-Biochemical Oxiqen Demand (in vitro) and in-host (in vivo) incubator in an aquarium. The second step consisted in comparing the form of infestation by allocating healthy fish in a water box containing sediment coming from a property with infestation of P. gamitanae and healthy fish in another box without the sediment, but in contact with infested fish, inside a tank network. The fish were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design.