The present study attempts to find out the effect of some fish preservatives in the laboratory, such as alcohol and dilute formalin, on some biological characteristics related to the body measurements of those fish preserved in these materials. The fish used in this study were the local Planiliza abu. The processes of expansion and contraction of the bodies of fish preserved in diluted formalin solution at a concentration of 10% and diluted ethyl alcohol solution at a concentration of 70%. As that the standard length of the specimens of this study, which are separately preserved in formalin 10% and alcohol 70%, in a completely isolated are fluctuating in change. Constant shrinkage in head length in both diluted formalin and alcohol.

The present study attempts to determine the effect of freezing for different periods on preserved bodies of fish in the laboratory to keep for the research and diagnosis of taxonomic studies and not for consumption. It also endeavors to identify the effect of freezing on some morphometric features of the preserved bodies of fishes. Planiliza abu fish were used to conduct the present study. Fish were frozen by regular freezing in the home refrigerator freezer with temperatures reaching four degrees centigrade below zero. Freezing time is distributed over four months; biometric measurements of frozen fish have been taken in these periods represented by body total length, Standard length, and Head length in centimeters using a ruler ve

Neoechinorhynchus iraqensis sp. n.(Acanthocephala: Neoechinorhynchidae) from the Freshwater Mullet, Liza abu.

    Two local fish Himri Carasobarbus luteus (Heckel, 1843)  and Hishni Liza abu (Heckel, 1843) were stained with Alizarin Red and featured some anatomical qualities which cleared the difference of the muscular and skeletal fabric for each fish. Since clear Histologic differences appeared in these two species, it was intended from this study the possibility of adopting a diagnosis between local fish species by staining bones and tissues.

    Three monogenean species of the genus Gyrodactylus viz. G. cotti Roman, 1956 on gills of Planiliza abu, G. mikailovi Ergens & Ibragimov, 1976 on gills of Chondrostoma regium and G. prostae Ergens, 1963 on gills of Alburnus caeruleus were recorded from Tigris river at Al-Shawwaka region, Baghdad. The description and measurements of these parasites as well as their illustrations where given. All these parasites are recorded here for the first time in Iraq.  
 

The red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier, 1790), which belongs to the family Curculionidae, order Coleoptera, is one of the most important palm pests, which leads to heavy losses in date palms. In the last few years, it has been recorded in Iraq, from Safwan city south of Iraq, where it was detected on date palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera L, Arecales: Arecaceae). In the current study, specimens of adult weevils were collected from infested date palms (Phoenix dactylifera), that showed signs of infection in Safwan district, south of Basra province. The results of the investigation showed the presence of phoretic mites associated with the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier,

The foreguts of a total of 515 fish of Chondrostoma regium (Heckel, 1843) (locally: Bala’aot Malloky) were studied. These fish were collected from Tigris River at Salah Al-Deen Province (between Al-Hagag & Yathrib) for 20 months between March and October of the next year. Detritus, plant in origin materials (19.6%, 23.0% & 24.9%); green and blue green algae, mostly Cladophora, Cosmarium and Merismpedia sp. (17.1%, 12.9% & 12.2%) and diatoms, mostly Diatoma, Chanathes, Amphora and Cyulbella sp. (16.9%, 8.8% & 8.2%) were the main food categories taken by these fishes according to occurrence (O%), volumetric methods (V%) and ranking index (R%). Debris (not part of the diet) took 45.3% of the studied fish foreguts by volume. Detritus was also

A total of 352 freshwater fishes, belonging to three species of the family Cyprinidae were collected from the Greater Zab river in north of Iraq during the period from November 2000 to the end of November 2001. The inspection of their gills revealed the infection of these fishes with three species of monogenetic trematodes belonging to the genus Dogielius. These species included D. mokhayeri from Aspius vorax with a percentage incidence of 37.5%; D. molnari from Cyprinion macrostomum (33.3%) and D. persicus from Barbus luteus (41.2%). The record of this genus and its three above-named species of the present study are considered as the first record on fishes of Iraq.

The monogenean Gyrodactylus bychowskianus Bogolepova, 1950 is recorded in the present study for the first time in Iraq from the gills of the cyprinid fish Arabibarbus grypus (Heckel, 1843); which was collected from the Tigris River at Al-Taji Beach north of Baghdad Province during the period from July until November 2018.