Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Bass with Disease??

Tonight while fishing in my pond I caught this bass. It has these white dots on the tail, a few on the side. What are these? Is this fish safe to eat? What does it mean for the other fish in my pond? I have a 1/4 acre pond with bass,bluegill & catfish.
This is the only fish so far that I have seen this on.





Thank you
-Jessica

Hang in there Jessica. Someone will be along with some ideas.

The forum has been running a little slow lately.

Welcome aboard.

By the way, what kind of bass is that? I first thought a smallmouth, but I don't see the white tip on the end of the gill plate. Pretty pattern if it's a largemouth.

Also, is that fish in the water? And alive I take it? I see the metal stringer there.

I think it is a large mouth but I don't really know. They were already in the pond when I bought this house. How can I figure it out? He's still swimming around my kitchen sink so I can get more pics. Was to chicken to eat him for dinner just yet.

Just a preliminary guess, but I'd say that is a largemouth with run-of-the-mill white or yellow parasitic grubs, usually located near the tail or at the base of the dorsal fin. Fish would still be completely edible, however I usually choose to hold the filet to the light and carve out any obvious grubs in the flesh. If it would take more than two or three hacks of the filet knife I usually choose to discard the filet, just because of the hassle factor.

Welcome to the forum.

Bruce

Thank you Bruce. I will give that a try & hold it to the light. Guess he's gonna be breakfast now. Thanks again!

No problem. There are other forum members much more knowledgable than me, but I've eaten hundreds and hundreds of filets from similar fish. I've yet to have a problem...except for this limp.....

If you do have the white or yellow grubs that Bruce describes I can tell you that their life cycle involves snails, fish, and fish eating birds such as herons. Do you see herons, egrets, kingfishers hanging around your pond? The bird eats a fish with grubs, the grub eggs I believe live in the bird until it poops in your pond. The eggs hatch and somehow live in snails. Your fish eats a snail and the grub burrows into its flesh. Then it all starts over. I got some of the yellow grubs in my fish when I had herons hanging around. Break the cycle by getting rid of the snails or the herons and within a month or two no more grubs.

Yes, I have two herons that I saw hanging around earlier in the summer, also a pair of canadian geese hung around until they hatched out gooslings & some wild ducks come around & a snapper turtle. I have not seen any snails, I did see leaches on the snapper turtles legs. Is there something I can do to be able to tell if I have the snails? Is there a snail trap??

I'm gonna fish today to see if I catch any others with these grubs. I've been fishing the pond for almost a year now & this was the only one that had had it.

Also will I be able to see the grubs on the catfish? There are channel cats, & brown bullhead & yellow bullheads.

Don't know if it makes a difference but part of the pond is 22ft deep (not sure why it was made so deep) & it is fed by an underground spring

Interesting question as to whether or not such grubs can affect cats. Since they have no scales, the parasite situation could be quite different with them. I eagerly await info from the experts.

For example, I have the occasional fish lice (louse?) on my LMB or BG (a very small crustacean that hangs on under the edge of a scale; looks like a pimple and has no effect on edibility), but I have never seen them on any catfish.

Redear Sunfish (which you may be too far North for) or Pumpkinseeds (which should survive quite well anywhere in NY) both eat the snails which are one part of the grub parasites' life cycle. So if you can add them to your pond, the incidence of grubs on your fish should decrease.

OK, I think there might be pumpkinseeds in there already, I guess I should just get some pics of all the different ones I catch so that I can figure out exactly what I have. The neighbors said for years they used to bring fish they caught from other places & put them in my pond. I have since asked them not to do that any longer since it is now against the law in NYS & I don't want them bringing in any diseases since I eat the fish in my pond. Well, I'm headed down now to get some pics. Will post when I get back.
Thanks again for your help.

Today I didn't have much luck, only caught catfish

So, here are some pics from earlier in the year of some of the other things i caught
Is this one a pumpkin seed or just a bluegil?

Well, I tried to fillet out that bass & it was totally infested, so I gave up. I went back down a few minutes ago & caught these two bass, on the outside they looked fine but the first one I filleted has a few of those grubs in it, & i cut them out. I really need more practice with the fillets. The second one I haven't done yet, can I just gut him & put him in the freezer & then later in the week put him in the smoker or since he probably has the grub do I have to fillet him?

Here are pics of the two from tonight, only weighted 1 lb 2 oz

Great pictures, and welcome.

The top picture sure looks like a pure strain bluegill. And the bottom photo sure looks a plain old large mouth bass. Both look very healthy.

As for the grubs, I've never seen the in catfish -- only in bass and the sunfish family (bluegill, green sunfish, rock bass, etc.) Other than maybe a little unappetizing, I've never heard of them posing any danger to humans when cooked.

I don't think I'd try to help out that turtle by removing those leeches. My guess is that the turtle is of pretty ill humor.

Good luck,
Ken

Is there a story behind the third picture of a catfish? Is it just me?

Those are some pretty nice bass you are pulling out. But, with a quarter-acre pond, you can't pull out too many without disrupting the balance of the pond. Taking out too many will affect the size of the bluegill and the other bass.

From the size of those bass, and the looks of that bluegill in the photos above, your pond look like it is probably pretty well balanced.

Maybe one of the experts can provide a little more guidance on how many bass and bluegill you can reasonably take out in a short time.

The catfish look great too. Just the right size for eating. You can pull out the catfish as desired. But, you'll have to replace them with reasonable size fingerlings, as any fry that hatch will probably not successfully grow to maturity in the pond.

The turtle looks delicious. You can take all of them without affecting the pond.

It looks like a great pond and home.

Keep us informed.

Ken

The third pic of the catfish is one that I think was attacked by the snapper turtle, he just kind hung around the side & let me feed him for the afternoon.

The three bass I took out between yesterday & today were the only ones I have kept this year. All the other I caught were released back in. I was just in the mood too cook some up. The catfish I have only kept about 3 also & released the rest. I did add 55 catfish earlier in the season. I also throw in some fish pellets every couple of day for them to eat.

I did get a stocking permit for the catfish, they wouldn't give me one for the bass so I hope they keep reproducing though when i threw the minnow trap in every so often I do get a lot of 1-2 inch bass in that so that looks good. I also applied & got my fishing preserve license so that I can keep fish all year long regardless of the season.

Not sure if anyone knew the answer to the above question I asked about do i have to fillet the bass with a few grubs or can I just gut it & then put it in the smoker?

I'd also like to thank you guys again for all of your help.

I smoke a lot meat and fish. My family has done it for generations. About 25 years ago I was the victim of error, and it was not pleasant.

Today, I did both fish and venison (last season's).

There are so many concerns to be aware of, I would recommend you do a thorough Internet search on fish smoking before you start. If you have grubs, you could have other parasites. Brining will kill some. Freezing will kill others. Heating will kill most. If you are cold smoking (less than 170 F degrees for 30 minutes), you could have other problems.

If you haven't done a lot of fish smoking, please do yourself a favor and research it well before starting.

I just opened a 3-1/2 week old crock of pickled bluegill tonight. I enjoyed it with a little bit of freshly smoked venison pieces. All was garnished with garden fresh tomato and cucumber. What a feast!

Enjoy -- but please stay safe.

Ken

The yellow grub you are observing is a trematode parasite. It belongs to the genus Clinostomum. This particular species poses no harm to you even if you ate it raw. There is a cousin to this particular parasite that can cause respiratory illness to humans, but it is found in Asia. This species of parasite can infect most U.S. fish species including catfish. The others are correct in saying that it has a detailed life-cycle involving a fish, bird, and snail. You are actually observing the larval form of the parasite called a metacercaria. FOr the parasite to become mature and reproduce, it must find it's way into the mouth and/or esophagus of a fish eating bird. In this case, it is almost always a blue heron. You will sometimes observe another species of trematode called "black-spot". Very similar transmission dynamics except it is most often associated with a kingfisher. At any rate, the adult parasite releases eggs in the mouth of the bird, which are then passed through the ol' poop chute. The eggs hatch and the larval form called a miricidium find a snail. The parasite undergoes more changes and leaves the snail as another form called the cercaria. THe cercaria finds your fish and the rest is history.

To control the life-cycle is to control the prevalence of infection. Pick your poison: you can whack the bird or whack the snails. Snails can be controlled by redear sunfish or they can be killed using copper sulfate. You probably know copper sulfate as an algaecide. It also kills invertebrates such as snails. The problem is that it kills invertebrates indiscriminately, so you can cause a significant decline in the food chain. I actually have a client whose main goal with his pond is swimming. A couple of years ago, his family developed a rash after swimming. They had what is called "swimmers-itch". The cercaria of another species of trematode, which uses a duck as the final host, tries to bore into humans. Although they cannot survive in humans, they do cause a mild allergic reaction. This particular species is very similar to the Schistosome parasites that wreak havoc in countries such as India. Fortunately, we don't have those problems in the U.S. At any rate, swimmer's itch is fairly common. We treat this guy's pond with copper sulfate which whacks the snails, and they swim itch-free.

Even if this species you are encountering was pathogenic to humans (but its not), a bath of hot grease would render the fish (and parasite) safe to eat.

You really want to have some fun??? Next time you filet a bass, remove his intestines and slice it lenght-wise. You'd be surprised as to the critters that often dwell there. Tapeworms are very common as are spiny-headed worms called Acanthocephalans. In summary, the parasites of fish are more common than you might think. Under usual conditions, they won't cause much damage. It has been experimentally confirmed that stocking redear reduces the prevalence and intensity of tremtode infection. Prevalence is the portion of the population is infected (either it is infected or it's not), and intensity is the degree to which it is infected (eg. 1 worm vs. 100 worms).

Gotta go. Happy fishing. Shawn

Thank you Shawn, How can I tell if there are snails in the pond? I haven't seen any. Is there some kind of snail trap I can make? I read somewhere about a leach trap with meat & a coffee can with holes in it but have not seen anything about snail traps.
Thanks,
Jessica

How lucky we are no one who here posts has problems with Schistosomeiesis!

I see snails everywhere in my pond. Hoping my Redear come soon they will have a feast.