Sick Fish??

[Gold_Coast_Chaser]

Hey Guys,;)

I went out for a fish on the weekend and caught 25 Legal Bream, again ;D . Every bream was the same except one. One bream had what i would call some sort of water leech's :P (tell me proper name), attached to its tail, there were approximately 7 or 8 little critters on there which were stuck pretty badly. We tried to remove them with pliers so the fish was free from these things but they were stuck pretty well, we let the fish go back and let it swum away but after i released it i was unsure if it was the right thing to do. Should i have killed it and removed it from the area (I have heard this is what should be done when they have the red spot disease).

All help on the matter would be appreciated so I know what to do if im ever in a similar situation.

[Cammy]

I have caught many bream with the same critters on the tail over at shorncliffe pier, i didnt know what they were at first, and still i dont really know what they are, i think some kind of parasite??. I used to scrap em off with the knife, sometimes there would be 3 or 4 big parasites on 1 fish, i felt sorry for it so i scrap em off now. I would catch say 5 bream and 4 would have them critters on em!

Cammo

[Gold_Coast_Chaser]

Hey,;D

Thanks Cammo, I think a parasite is definetly a better word for it :P

They sortof looked like cockroaches which had forced their feet into the flesh of the fish.

Any info appreciated ;)

[tailorboi99]

I wonder what they are, be interesting to find an answer

Cheers Tom

[oldsalty]

If they looked sorta like a cockroach then I would think they were an Isopod. But I wouldn't worry too much about removing them. Parasites do not kill their host because it would not be in the parasites best interest. If they did, they would be called predators. Although they certainly don't benefit the fish, they are still a natural part of the ecosystem (unless there introduced - usually in the bildge water of freighters from overseas) so I personally would leave them there... but there is no harm in pulling them off. I wouldn't kill them though.

Anyways, thats my two bobs worth :)

Dave

[Gold_Coast_Chaser]

Hey,

Thanks Dave, ;D

They looked like they were piercing the skin of the fish and there seemed to be a bit of blood. But there must be a reason that this fish had them on it and no other bream do. It must have stayed pretty still to allow 10 "Isopods" to attach onto it? But it still seemed to be eating and acting normally as it scoffed a prawn down :P

Any more help will be appreciated ;)

[Jeremy87]

Did a parasitology course last semester, part of it was disecting fish and looking for parasites. Out of the couple of hundred fish we disected over the weekend every single one had at least 2 different species of parasite in or on them but most of them are only noticable to the obsever with a mircoscope. isopods are probably the most debilitating parasite a fish can pick up but are perfectly normal and there is no reason to suggest that the fish was any worse off compared to the other fish you caught. You can pick them off if you want to but i wouldn't go removing fish just because it has a parasite on it, under that rational you should remove every fish you catch.

[Gold_Coast_Chaser]

Thanks Heaps Jeremy,;D

That is some great info and its not every day you meet someone who has done a parasitology course :P , couldnt have got the info from a more experience person on the issue. So im guessing it would have been fine to have eaten or would you recommend putting fish like that just incase something is wrong?

Once again Thanks!!!