중동부유럽

In this paper, we studied the parasitic worms of invasive fish in Lithuania. We focused on four fish species foreign to Lithuanian freshwaters, namely the monkey goby (Neogobius fluviatilis), the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), the stone moroko (Pseudorasbora parva), and the Chinese sleeper (Perccottus glenii). In total, we examined 278 fish from 13 freshwater bodies and found 29 species of parasitic worms. Most of them were found to be juvenile and we used morphological and DNA-based methods to identify these parasitic worms. The monkey goby was the most infected fish species, carrying 18 species of parasitic worms, while the Chinese sleeper was, surprisingly, not infected. Most of the parasitic worms we found were already present in fish in Lithuania, but seven were only found within the invasive fish species we examined. This means that these fish likely brought some parasites with them when they were first introduced to Lithuanian freshwaters and are also capable of carrying and spreading local Lithuanian parasites. This novel information is important, as it helps us to better understand how invasive fish might be affecting ecosystems beyond the well-known effects that they have on habitats and other local animals.