The Parasitic Copods that Infected the SML Striped Bass

[SlightlyInsane]

For those who have never seen them, these are pictures of the Parasitic Copods, also called "Gill Maggots" that infected the SML Striped Bass and did so much damage to the SML Striper fishery. These copods created a major "large fish" kill, which affected most of the Striped Bass that weighed 10 pounds or more.

[mwardncsu]

Good pics - what most folks do not realize is that by and large all our SML stripers have these - you just don't see them all the time as when you do what you are mostly seeing is the parasite in a partcular phase of its reproductive cyle - a lot of what is seen is the egg sacs (the tubular grey looking things attached in many of the pics above).

They are harmless to anyone that consumes striped bass when cooked - and the fish can live with them for a long duration, but they do put a strain on the fish by increasing their metabolism. It is generally believed that it was the combination of the stress placed on the fish from these parasites, coupled with a major threadfin die-off from a harsh winter that left the fish in a situation where they had increased metabolism and nothing to eat..... a bad combination.....

[CorneliaGale]

Lets hope that something will take care of them, so the fish will continue to grow. Maybe someday the lake will come back to what it was before the die off.

[BentRod]

I see them in every single Striper we catch out of SML. Some are horrible, others not so bad.

[Pete D.]

This is so disheartening. What can be done to rid these stupid parasites? Has the DGIF gotten involved yet?

[BentRod]

They've been around for over 10yrs now. There's nothing you can do to rid the fish of them short of making SML has a saltwater lake. DGIF has been involved from Day 1 and they researched and studied these parasites more than any other states that have the same issue, mainly bc SML was one of the first lakes to have a major die-off and there was no information out there, so DGIF had to study it themselves.

There's something holding our stripers back but the thought is that it is not single handedly the parasites since growth in Tn lakes and even in Leesville (all of which have the parasites also) appears to be normal. There will be some changes coming in the near future to address this.