First trout of the day from a wilderness stillwater, checked it's dietary requirements and noticed that as well as the sticklebacks it had quite a few of these worms on its guts.


Any idea what they are and if this raises any significant issues regarding the fishery.

__________________
Musha rig um du rum da

Looks like tapeworm. Did it go back ok?

Why of course Stuart, removed the worms, stitched it up, gave it some aspirin and it swam off with a nonchalant flick of the tail!

__________________
Musha rig um du rum da

Aye, good old aspirin, underrated if you ask me.

Back to the worms. I've had a few wild ones from a mountain lake like that in the past with the tape worms db, I'm sure I read something on tinternet about them somewhere, but can't for the life of me remember where. I'll try and find it again.

Used to catch quite a few tapeworm infected Arctic charr in Llyn Padarn. Black headed gulls or terns (not sure which species) were the other host.

Human tapeworm in trout is bad news. SpringerLink - Book Chapter


A little tip: we found Klinik Carp Care Antiseptic to be excellent after sewing the poor things up again.

__________________


Save the softmouth trout

Chers Stu, the three fish we examined all had worms. The last, measured at 15" was like an eel and overwhelmed by the things. This kind of infestation must make quite a difference to the growth rate of the fish.

__________________
Musha rig um du rum da

Thanks for that link FM - nice! Snails were suggested as part of the worms life cycle on the day. Terns and carp men weren't a feature.

__________________
Musha rig um du rum da

It's been discussed here DB, not sure if it's any help though.

Thanks again, it's interesting enough alright, particularly the medication aspect - challenging in tablet form...... Draining the lake certainly wouldn't be an option so it does pose a conundrum as the cycle looks to be very well established.

__________________
Musha rig um du rum da

Puts you off sushi

__________________
*
How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

~~*~~~~~
*****©(