Has anyone seen this before? (fish disease?)

I caught this bluegill earlier in the week, took a photo of it because it was more colorful than most I catch (though it only shows a little in the photo). When I got around to looking at the photo on my computer I noticed a couple of white spherical lumps under the gills and a couple on the bottom of the head that I somehow didn't notice when I caught the fish. Has anyone seen anything like this before? I presume it's some kind of disease but I'm not familiar with it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...sh-disease.jpg

Could they be grubbs? Usually in this area when we run across grubby fish it's in the warmer time of year, in more still waters and usually the infestions are right at where the tail begins, or on the top of the fish right at the fin.

I'd be interested in knowing just what they are, too.



Dale

I would suggest that it is a parasite more so than a disease, however, I have no experience with warm water species, so that's the best I can say. :?

Bill,

They appear to be Ergasilus sp. parasites which are know to attack Bluegills. Ergasilus sp. parasites are white with two egg sacs.

Jim Smith

Yup! It's Ergasilus alright.

It's basically a fish louse, or crab (in the copepod family). It does not effect humans and is killed by the cooking process. It's okay to eat fish that have this infestation (but I wouldn't use them for Sushi, just because of the thought of it......creepy!).

Semper Fi!

George Castansa would be proud of those manicued hands ;)

I didn't realize they considered chewing your fingernails to be a manicure these days. http://flyanglersonline.com/bb/image...s/icon_lol.gif

The only time my hands look nice is if I've been fly tying and all the rough spots start fraying the thread. . . then I'll do something about all the hangnails and rough spots but usually my hands get pretty rough.

I'm not sure what you call it but I see it often in farm ponds, and to confirm what someone else reported earlier, a State Wildlife Biologist told me if was perfectly safe to eat fish that had this condition and I have done so many times and lived to talk about it.

It's not safe for me to eat 'em, I happen to be allergic to fish! Go figure. :lol: