A Gyrodactylus salaries is a monogenean ectoparasite. They mainly live on the skin of the Atlantic salmon. Monogeneans are small parasitic flatworms. These monogeneans usually live on the skin, fins and gills of fish. These monogeneans do not reproduce asexually. Their common relatives are Platyhelminthes and tapeworm. There are over 400 known species of the Gyrodactylus salaries This Gyrodactylus are very good at infecting rivers, but can be treated by pesticide rotenone. However there is another method that can also work too. That is using aqueous aluminum and or sulfuric acid. These two methods both work by killing the parasite without harming the host at all.

This Gyrodactylus salaries is really a leech-like parasite, which normally live on fish and frogs. These leech-like parasites were first found in the 1970’s in Norway. These parasites are really small to see and they don’t grow very big at all. You would have to use a magnifying glass in order to see this in the salmon skin. These leech-like parasites are mainly found on salmon, rainbow trout, Artic char, grayling, and brown trout in Scottish rivers. When fish get these leech-like parasites they usually cause a really bad infection to the fish. Also these parasites cannot survive full strength water. This parasite can only be seen with a low power magnification. If you get this parasite it can cause a fungus infection. If to you have too many of these parasites it can cause a intense infection.

Author: Jake F

Published: 02/2008

Sources: En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrodactylus_salaris www.marlab.ac.uk/FRS.Web/Delivery/disply_standalone.aspx?contenid=861

Photo Credit: http://www.nhm.uio.no/zoomus/blotdyr/forskning.html