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Author Topic: Caught Released Trout, weird parasite  (Read 2526 times)

akasha

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Caught Released Trout, weird parasite
« on: March 18, 2011, 09:38:11 PM »
Long time forum creeper first time poster. Went fishing out at Sasmat tonight, caught a rainbow but it had 5 of these litter critters on it, anyone know what they are?
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Dave

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Re: Caught Released Trout, weird parasite
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2011, 10:11:20 PM »
They are a parasitic copepod common in productive lakes and for some reason seem to prefer salmonids over other fish like pikeminnows, suckers, chub, etc.   Most often they attach to the gill filaments but are also found around fins.  Salmonids in Cultus Lake are especially affected by these copepods.
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akasha

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Re: Caught Released Trout, weird parasite
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2011, 11:02:28 PM »
Hmm are they dangerous or people or dogs or just something you can pull off?
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Dave

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Re: Caught Released Trout, weird parasite
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2011, 09:07:17 AM »
No, they are not dangerous and yes, pull them off.
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