sick Bream??

[Bear]

Guys,
just read a post on another forum from Frank Prokop about Bream with sores on them in the Swan and Canning.

Has any one seen anyhting like this on the Bream they have caught. I have copied Frank's post below.

Stages is right - this is a potential huge problem and one that needs very careful attention.
I gave big coverage to the acid sulphate problem on my last show on the ABC (thanks for the support from our radio station (NOT), and there are bores in the Karrinyup area putting out water at a pH of 2 - this is a stronger acid than lemon juice!!!! It is caused by cutting into iron and sulphur rich peat or organic soils that have been water logged (read around all the sand lakes and much of the south-west and south coast). When exposed to air, the sulphides oxidise forming SO2 and then when water passes over them they become H2SO4 which is sulphuric acid. Although not as stron, the iron compounds become ferric acid.

Think this isn't a problem?? 15 years ago I was working at the Grafton Research Hatchery and they started finding mullet, bream and herring (Richmond river herring not ours) with ulcers exactly as described here (I have seen them nearly twice the size of a 50 cent piece and almost through to the bone. It is red spot disease and after many years, the primary cause was found to be acid soil run-off leading to a variety of bacterial and fungal atacks. Yes Ando an injury makes it worse but what really happens is that the acid water affects the function of the mucous producing cells in the skin of the fish, reducing mucous (protects fish from all sorts of attacks) and allowing the secondary agents to attack the fish. The acid water also puts the fish under low level stress which also makes them more susceptible to a variety of diseases.

Fish like bream and mullet are particularly susceptible as they spend time in upper reaches of rivers in summer when natural flows are low and acid likely to be more concentrated.

And the longer term consequences??? I'm not saying that it will happen but the Manning and Hastings Rivers (that were thought to be immune from acid sulphate problems) wereclosed to commercial fishing (and a warning for recreational fishers) for two years to allow fish stocks to build up after massive kills associated with acid run off.

Of course the invertebrates are also impacted upon. It may be one of the reasons why the school prawns have all but disappeared from the Swan.

Keep an eye on this one as it is an important emerging issue.

In the meantime - keep the specimens that have obvious ulcers. Freeze the fish immediately (whole) and get it to a Fisheries Office. Dr Brian Jones (who is one of the world's best fisheries pathologists) works for WA Fisheries and would like to see some of these fish to test for red spot implicated organisms!!

Happy New Year to you all.

Sometimes leadership has a cost, but sometimes the outcome is worth the effort. Recfishwest - trying to ensure your fishing quality.

[Richo]

Well funny you mention that Bear, We`ve seen a few funny looking blackies come from the Ascot area recently in the DohDohDoh mag missing this or that. Now whether thats a result of attacked Im not sure. But the 41cm I pulled the other week had a wicked ulcer looking thing on one side of it. It was discussed of course and then returned to the water, and would have been a nice speciman for research purposes. My main query is that all the Bream with ulcers or parts missing (that I have seen)are from the Ascot area, didn`t this used to be a rubbish tip.??

Because we had a fella at Ascot ask us if we were catching any fish as there are none in Ascot and then went on to say that it was because there still heaps of batteries buried in the ground and the amount of acid etc in the area is real high and the fish will poison you. (hope he read this months DohDohDoh mag re Ascot) but Im just wondering whether some of these mutant bream are results of residing in the Ascot conditions for so long. Call me silly or stupid, but I had to ask.

Cheers

Richo

[bubba]

Monday and tuesday last week I ventured down to that new bridge for the polly pipe (cant member name) and picked up a few flatties on softies.
I noticed a couple of small ulcers on the underbelly on one of them. At the time I put it down to abrasions but perhaphs I was wrong

[Evan]

wasnt there that big toxic crap spill there a couple of years back. perhaps these are some of the bream that survived but have now developed cancers etc as a result???

[mangajack]

G'day Lads,
This red spot disease is a common event in south east queensland also. Towards the end of a drought or prolonged period without rain the waters host a lot of sea lice and they attack the fish in the rivers, creeks and estuaries like Pumicestone passage, Bribie Island.
Over some twenty years of fishing the passage and its feeder creeks I have noticed that it is nearly an annual event that dissapears after a decent flush. Guys down at the Decpetion Bay CSIRO research facility ran tests over these affected fish a dozen or more years ago and they think that nearly all of the ulcers we see on fish are the result from parasites like the sea lice.
I have been fishing at times when every bream you catch has these sores on them, sometimes up to about 50 bream a day and several flathead and flounder.
As I mentioned earlier, this problem disappears with a good flush or small flood and the system becomes cleaned of parasites.
I had a bream about 150mm in an aquarium that had a red ulcer on it when i placed it in there and within two weeks it had healed altho it did leave a scar in the scale pattern.
To an extent the water quality will have a bearing on how much of this disease is around, but I believe that with the extra salty water in those creeks from lack of rain will encourage the large sea lice into the river systems and breed there.
It is not uncommon in the late stages of drought to catch a bream or flathead with as many as 6 or so big sea lice attached to them and a large ulcer under each louse. Lice i have seen here range from about 3mm long to about 35mm long, so i think they might make a fish very unhappy or ill.
May the rains come and revive the systems again.

Tony.