Collecting Marine Gnathiid Isopod Fish Parasites with Light Traps

A method to collect marine gnathiid isopod fish parasites with the use of light traps is presented. Gnathiid isopods are a major group of marine fish parasites that feed on blood and fluid from host fishes, mostly at night. Like ticks and mosquitos on land, they associate only temporarily with their host and spend most of their life free-living in the benthos. Given their high mobility and transient and predominantly nocturnal association with hosts, they cannot easily be collected by capturing free-living hosts. However, they are readily attracted to underwater light sources, creating the opportunity to collect them in light traps. Here the design and individual steps involved in the deployment and processing of specially adapted light traps for collecting free-living stages of gnathiid isopods are outlined. Sample results and possible modifications of the basic protocol for a variety of different sampling needs are presented and discussed.