| Epibiosis was studied in dominant mangrove crustacean species in several areas in Malaysia. The observed basibionts were the crustaceans Mesopodopsis orientalis, Acetes japonicus, Acetes sibogae, Acetes indicus and Fenneropenaeus merguiensis and the epibionts found were the protozoan ciliates Acineta branchicola, Lagenophrys eupagurus, Conidophrys pitelkae and Zoothamnium duplicatum. Basibionts from the open sea area (Acetes japonicas) and from a sandy beach of Penang (Mesopodopsis orientalis) showed the lowest epibiont densities. Considering all the colonized anatomical units each basibiont species had a distinct epibiotic distribution and the epibiont species presented a significantly different distribution over each of the basibiont species. In the... |
