Absence of endoparasites among groupers (Epinephelus spp.) In commercial farms in Bachok and Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan.

Endoparasitism is one of the common fish diseases affecting both marine fish and freshwater fish. The socio-economic impacts of endoparasitism in fish are loss of income and employment, reduced customer confidence in purchasing fish from sellers, food shortage, increased cost of disease research, control and health managements. This study is done because the prevalence of endoparasites in groupers caught from the wild and caged culture in Penang were 77.1% and 97.2% which are high, thus, this study was conducted to identify the endoparasites and determine the prevalence of endoparasitism in grouper fish from two different commercial farms: Farm A located in Bachok and Farm B located in Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan. A total of 32 groupers have been collected altogether from the commercial farms. Post-mortem and organ scraping of the stomach, pyloric ceca, and intestines were conducted to collect the endoparasites. However, no endoparasites were obtained from the groupers. The length and bodyweight of the groupers, and water quality results were recorded. The average length of groupers in Farm A and Farm B was 22.0cm to 28.5cm and 4.3cm to 6.5cm respectively. The average weight of groupers in Farm A and Farm B was 202.8 g to 465.3g and 1.2g to 4.6g respectively. Based on the water quality results, both Farm A and Farm B have the optimum range of dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature, pH, ammonia, and nitrate. The other factors that contributed to the absence of endoparasitism could be due to age and size since a younger age and smaller size fish have a higher affinity towards parasitism. In addition, the administration of vitamins boosts the immunity of fish which helps to combat the parasitic infestation. In conclusion, good environmental condition as reflected by optimal parameters of water quality may contributed to the absence of endoparasites among groupers sampled from both Farm A and Farm B in this study.
Keywords: Groupers, Endoparasites, Water quality, Factors