I was called out to a case today to provide treatment for fish lice. These parasites are one of few that are visible with your naked eye.
But just to be thorough, I insisted on conducting routine microscopic examination. Lo and behold, there was another critter! Gill flukes! Now these guys are so small that you would never detect them without a microscope! They can cause massive fish losses if the problem is not addressed.
If I hadn’t persevered with doing a thorough job, then I would have missed the diagnosis and the fishes would be in grave danger! Also, the treatment regime would be different for the two different parasites.
It pays to look. For if you don’t look, you will not see.
Dr Richmond Loh
thefishvet.com.au
