Jethro Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 Hi all I caught a flathead a while ago up in Lake Macquarie. When I cleaned it, it had smome small yellow growths around its gills... see photo.. I havent noticed it any flathead I have caught in the past. Any know what it might be??
0 Flattieman Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 Hi all I caught a flathead a while ago up in Lake Macquarie. When I cleaned it, it had smome small yellow growths around its gills... see photo.. I havent noticed it any flathead I have caught in the past. Any know what it might be?? Hi mate. I've heard of cases like this before - never encountered this myself. I'l have a search around. Flattieman.
0 Richie Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 An aquatic version of lung cancer? I wonder if she smoked...
0 Robbielites Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 I didn't know they liked corn... Robbie.
0 harold Posted November 9, 2006 Posted November 9, 2006 my ex looked just like that. Glad you found her.
0 micheal richens Posted November 9, 2006 Posted November 9, 2006 OH MAN!! That is some freaky stuff.
0 Guest DV8 Posted November 9, 2006 Posted November 9, 2006 OH MAN!! That is some freaky stuff. Somthing to do with Mr Burns' power station at Vales Point.
0 Jethro Posted November 12, 2006 Author Posted November 12, 2006 Yeah it was a bit of a surprise. Other than the growth the fish was in great condition. I might have to shoot an email off to fisheries and see what they say
0 SiNH Posted November 13, 2006 Posted November 13, 2006 Is it just me or doe that picture makes you physically sick too? Im sure it must me just me hehe.
0 Flattieman Posted November 13, 2006 Posted November 13, 2006 I might have to shoot an email off to fisheries and see what they say Yeah mate- good idea. I checked the government site for fish disease, but nothing came up that matched your flattie's ailment! Flattieman.
0 Dan A Posted November 13, 2006 Posted November 13, 2006 (edited) I've caught a flattie with that shit in it before, no idea what it is though, if you pop them out they are kinda spongey. Cant remember where from though....think maybe the Cowan Dan Edited November 13, 2006 by Dan A
0 Jethro Posted November 14, 2006 Author Posted November 14, 2006 I have sent an email off to Fisheries and will wait and see what they have to say. I just used the general email address off the DPI site... Im assuming this is the best one to use???
0 coollagirl Posted December 1, 2006 Posted December 1, 2006 Pretty ferral glad I didn't find that one. looks like it has some kind of bad bacteria growing or a disease of some sort yuk coollagirl
0 Jethro Posted December 3, 2006 Author Posted December 3, 2006 I sent an email to fisheries a few eeks ago now... and still no reply. Does anyone have an email address other than the genral one on the DPI site??
0 abitfishy Posted December 3, 2006 Posted December 3, 2006 I sent an email to fisheries a few eeks ago now... and still no reply. Does anyone have an email address other than the genral one on the DPI site?? These government departments need to get fair dunkum. National Parks is the same, never reply to emails.
0 mrmoshe Posted December 3, 2006 Posted December 3, 2006 (edited) I sent an email to fisheries a few eeks ago now... and still no reply. Does anyone have an email address other than the genral one on the DPI site?? Hi Jethro, Just spoke to a fellow named Kevin Rowling at Fisheries NSW and he is more than willing to take a look at the photo to try to identify it. He thinks, without seeing the photo, that it is probably a parasite of some kind. If he can't identify it, he said he'd pass it on to his colleague at The Australian Museum to see if he can identify it. Kevin sounded like a very helpful bloke, so can you email him the picture. Also include in the email, the type of flattie and where it was caught. Kevin's email address is kevin.rowling@dpi.nsw.gov.au I'm sure we'd all love to find out what it was, so please post any response you get from him. He also said that by sending it to the general info email address, as you already did, someone would have eventually replied, but at least now we have a direct contact at Fisheries for these type of things. Cheers, Pete. Edited December 4, 2006 by MallacootaPete
0 Jethro Posted December 4, 2006 Author Posted December 4, 2006 Thanks pete I will shoot an email off now and let eeveryone know what he has to say
0 Jethro Posted December 6, 2006 Author Posted December 6, 2006 Hi all I received the following repy this morning.... It appears that the 'growths' in your flathead are likely to be cysts formed by a microspridian parasite. They certainly look very similar to some photos which have been published in journal articles which show 'white cysts, grossly visible' on the gills arches of the inffected fish. There are many species of such parasites which infect marine fish (and most other members of the animal kingdom, including insects, reptiles and even humans in some cases) and they usually occur in a specific tissue (e.g. the intestine, stomach or as in the case of your fish, the gills and / or buccal cavity). Microspridia are very small, primitive true-celled organisms, which are not really well known to science. I have come across quite a few examples reported for fish, and generally the infection does not seem to be deleterious to the host organism (unless they are stressed in some other way, e.g. by temperature stress or lack of food). Although some types of microsporidians infect humans, they appear to be fairly host specific and so do not present a danger to humans consuming the flesh of an infected fish (especially if the flesh is cooked first). To confirm that the growths are indeed such cysts would require histological examination using a microscope, which is not in our normal line of work here and would probably need to be done at the Museum or a parisitology department of a University. The occureence of one (or a small number of) infected fish in Lake Macquarie is not something to be concerned about - however if you come across many infected fish within a catch they that may require further investigation. Hope this information helps - please contact me again if you require any further information. This is the 1st of these growths that I have seen. I will have to keep an eye out tyo see if we come across any more
0 mrmoshe Posted December 6, 2006 Posted December 6, 2006 Hi all I received the following repy this morning.... It appears that the 'growths' in your flathead are likely to be cysts formed by a microspridian parasite. They certainly look very similar to some photos which have been published in journal articles which show 'white cysts, grossly visible' on the gills arches of the inffected fish. There are many species of such parasites which infect marine fish (and most other members of the animal kingdom, including insects, reptiles and even humans in some cases) and they usually occur in a specific tissue (e.g. the intestine, stomach or as in the case of your fish, the gills and / or buccal cavity). Microspridia are very small, primitive true-celled organisms, which are not really well known to science. I have come across quite a few examples reported for fish, and generally the infection does not seem to be deleterious to the host organism (unless they are stressed in some other way, e.g. by temperature stress or lack of food). Although some types of microsporidians infect humans, they appear to be fairly host specific and so do not present a danger to humans consuming the flesh of an infected fish (especially if the flesh is cooked first). To confirm that the growths are indeed such cysts would require histological examination using a microscope, which is not in our normal line of work here and would probably need to be done at the Museum or a parisitology department of a University. The occureence of one (or a small number of) infected fish in Lake Macquarie is not something to be concerned about - however if you come across many infected fish within a catch they that may require further investigation. Hope this information helps - please contact me again if you require any further information. This is the 1st of these growths that I have seen. I will have to keep an eye out tyo see if we come across any more Good stuff Jethro. Glad we all finally have an answer to the riddle of the poxy gills. Good to know also that it isn't going to make you sick if you eat the fish too. I hope your fish was a one off and that Lake Mac is still disease free. Cheers, Pete.
0 Jethro Posted December 10, 2006 Author Posted December 10, 2006 Hi guys I fished Lake Macquarie again on the weekend and got a few flatties between 55-73cm. I took 3 home for a feed. Out of those 3 fish 2 had the same growth. It was not as pronounced as the fish in the photo but it was definately still there. On the up side my mate took 2 fish home and it was not in either of them.. I kept one of the heads and have sent an email off to Kevin at the DPI to see what he says
0 mrmoshe Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 That's good Jethro. Glad you kept it's head and sent another email off to Kevin. This where Fishraider members working with bodies like Fisheries can have a positive impact on the state of health of our waterways. It's mostly through input from Rec. fishos that things like this come to light. In Kevin's email ,he seemed genuinly interested in this problem and at least they will perhaps look into what in causing this phenomenon. Please keep us all posted. Cheers, Pete.
Question
Jethro
Hi all
I caught a flathead a while ago up in Lake Macquarie. When I cleaned it, it had smome small yellow growths around its gills... see photo..
I havent noticed it any flathead I have caught in the past.
Any know what it might be??
29 answers to this question
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