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Digestion of free‐living nematodes fed to fish
Author(s) -
Hofsten A. V.,
Kahan D.,
Katznelson R.,
BarEl T.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8649.1983.tb02922.x
Subject(s) - biology , nematode , digestion (alchemy) , cloaca , cuticle (hair) , zoology , caenorhabditis , oligochaeta (plant) , body cavity , anatomy , caenorhabditis elegans , ecology , biochemistry , gene , chemistry , chromatography
Free‐living nematodes— Panagrellus sp., Turbatrix aceti, Caenorhabditis elegans and C. briggsae—were each fed to the fish Danio sp. and the process of their digestion, in the fish alimentary canal, was studied by light and electron microscope. Almost no identifiable nematodes were found in the fish gut when the digestion period was 3 h or more, except for buccal capsules of the four studied species, males' spicules of Panagrellus sp. and Turbatrix aceti and egg‐capsules of the Caenorhabditis species. These structures could serve as indicators that the nematodes had been preyed on and digested by the fish. Differences in the mode of digestion were noticed between the various species of nematodes studied, after a period of 0·5–1 h, in the fish gut. In Panagrellus sp. and T. aceti disintegration of the soft inner tissues occurred mostly at the anterior or posterior ends of the nematode's body, while in Caenorhabditis the majority of digested nematodes were affected at both ends or evenly along the entire body. Digestion seemed to be initiated mostly at the nematodes' body apertures: mouth, anus or cloaca, and vulva which could be due to a more vulnerable cuticle around those areas. Disintegration proceeded from the soft inner parts to the more resistant cuticle that was finally disintegrated. Of the three layers of cuticle the most resistant were the external cortex and the basal layers.