The present investigation provides a list of all helminth parasites infecting 47 species of Red Sea fishes during the period from February to November 1993. About 1400 fishes belonging to 24 families were examined. The helminthes recovered include adult trematodes, larval cestodes, adult and larvae of nematodes, and adult acanthocephala.
The prevalence of parasite infections in different fish families in relation to size and sex of their hosts was examined. Seasonality of infection was analyzed to demonstrate the effect of weather on rate of infection. The highest infection rate was recorded during auturnn and the lowest rate during winter. Families' Mugiloididae and Serranidae were the highest fish families susceptible to infection by helminth parasites however, family Siganidae harbored several species of parasites. Nematode infection represented the highest prevalence of infection in the Red Sea fishes.
This was followed by the infection of Cestode larvae belonging to family Trypanorhyncha, followed by Trematode infection then Acanthocephalan infections were the lowest in prevalence.