Cecil you could be right, I am basing my identification on what I was told by a biologist, but in fairness to him, he didn't see my fish, he was going off of my description of the parasite.
It really was the worst infestation I've seen, with the tails, dorsal and anal fins, pectoral fins, and yes, when the fish would flare it's gills I could see the grubs just under the surface of the gill arches. I was thinking that there had to be some difference in behaviour that would account for the native BG having the parasite so much worse than the HBG. You could be right on the feeding, as the HBG are pellet fed, and the BG pretty much just rely on foraging. Just for curiosities sake, how long do the free swimming cercariae live after leaving the snail?
Bill, I hope there is someone who can enlighten us further, as, like you said, I have a lot of questions.
Thanks for everyone's input so far.
