Effect of entada rheedii's extract on argulus japonicus from goldfish

Abstract

Goldfish is a familiar ornamental fish in Malaysia. The culture and breeding of goldfish has contributed to the country economy through import and export activities. However, the major problem of goldfish is the parasite infection which is mainly from the ectoparasite such as Argulus sp. High infection of Argulus sp. on goldfish leads to increase mortality of fish. In order to decrease the Argulus sp. infection, extract of Entada rheedii was tested to treat Argulus infection on goldfish. Extract of E. rheedii was used traditionally as a shampoo due to its saponin content that can eradicate the hair lice. The main objective of this study were to examine Argulus sp. that infect on goldfish in Perak and also their life cycle stages in captivity from egg to adult stage. The next objective was to study the survival rate of goldfish and Argulus sp. after exposure with E. rheedii plant extract. Parasite identification was done based on the morphological approach by compound and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For life cycle, observation a hand full of Argulus were maintained in a freshwater aquarium with temperature set at 30°C.