Bluegill Parasites

A few weeks ago I went ice fishing and caught several bluegills and crappies. I brought them home and while cleaning them I found 3 parasites, flukes I believe, in the some of the bluegills. That in itself wasn't any big deal as I've found them before. In the past I had always just cut them out of the meat and thrown them away, this time for some reason my curiosity got the better of me so I cut them out carefully, and put them into a dish of dechlorinated water. Was quite surprised to find that they could move around. I'm not sure why that surprised me but I was not expecting them to be as active as they were. I snapped a few pictures and took some video. I was going to try to post them the next day but after reviewing the video I realized that I need to be a little more aware of the background when I take a video. I had a credit card statement setting on the table in clear view. I still had the parasites and 2 were still alive, but moving around a lot less by then, and I wasn't satisfied with the video I was getting on day 2. I went fishing again last weekend, and caught several more crappies and 1 bluegill. There was a parasite in this bluegill also, so was finally able to get the video. But first the pictures.

One of the bluegills from the first batch, had the parasite just beneath the skin at the base of it's dorsal fin. It's the little white dot near the back
 Bluegill_fin_01_19_09.jpg   77.71KB   3 downloads
 Bluegill_fin2_01_19_09.jpg   58.92KB   0 downloads

A couple pictures of an extracted parasite (couldn't quite get them into focus)
 Bluegill_parasite_1.jpg   16.66KB   6 downloads  bluegill_parasite_2.jpg   25.8KB   0 downloads

The other parasites were all found in the flesh like this one a bit to the left of the arrow. Sushi anyone?
 bluegill_parasite_trip_2.jpg   51.12KB   0 downloads

And finally the video.

Whoa. That thing was pretty active. Just make sure you don't undercook your fish

Yep, that one that you have on a piece of cardboard is a trematode I believe. Sorry for the vague description.

Thanks for posting pics, I am taking a parasitology course next semester, and doing my senior seminar "undergraduate research" on parasites commonly found in the local Etheostoma (blennioides, caeruleum, flabellare, nigrum, spectabile, etc....) that central Illinois has to offer.

Blake