Sandy Cape Queenfish Ciguatera

[Slider]

Caught this queeny last week off the beach near Sandy Cape and kept it with a curry and kelpie in mind. 4 people and the dog are now/still (2 weeks) dealing with the symptoms of ciguatera poisoning which have included extreme fatigue, muscle soreness and itchiness as well as blurred vision and joint pain. The kelpie barely survived 3 days of respiratory collapse and nausea but seems to be mostly fine now but knocks up quickly.
I hadn't heard of ciguatera in queenfish before, but can apparently occur in large Hervey Bay queenies due to the lyngbia algal blooms there. They'll be released in future no matter what size.

[Dan5]

Well I've never head of Queeny's with Cig either but I suppose they are just another large predatory fish like Mack's and Cuda's.

Hope everyone get's over it mate.

Dan

[creat]

How heavy would it be, market guidelines say up to 10kg is ok.

www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/Portals/0/Ciguatera_Schedule.pdf (http://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/Portals/0/Ciguatera_Schedule.pdf)

[hungry6]

You learn something new everyday, That's terrible bad luck.

[spelchek]

My 9yo son developed cig like symptoms (numb lips which spread to cheek and throat) after eating a few scraps of a big bonito off the cleaning table as I was filleting a couple of them. Caught about 1/3 way home from musgrave-bundy.

He only ate a few small scraps - was complaining of onset os symptoms when i took the rest of the cleaned fish upstairs - about 10-15mins after eating. Quick trip to the ER and they observed him for a couple of hours then released with 'no warm water fish' for 6 months.

Still not sure if we had a lucky near miss/escape or it was something else entirely. I had never heard of cig in bonito (but then again, ER doctor had never even heard of ciguatera so I don;t feel too stupid).

Sorry to hear of your full ciguatera experience slider. Hope you all get well asap.

[Spaniard_King]

Yep, Cig is Common in Queenies, one was caught up Bundy way and they fed some to the cat.. then ate the fish.. all ended up in Hospital and when they came home fed the rest to the cat.. he ate the lot no problem.. go figure

[PixieAU]

Yep, Cig is Common in Queenies, one was caught up Bundy way and they fed some to the cat.. then ate the fish.. all ended up in Hospital and when they came home fed the rest to the cat.. he ate the lot no problem.. go figure
Haha, so they knew it was bad but still fed the rest to the cat. I had been wondering about what a cat is good for...

[tunaticer]

Mate's entire family got cig from a stargaser caught at the Inskip barge whilst wating in line......

[cuzzamundi]

Mate's entire family got cig from a stargaser caught at the Inskip barge whilst wating in line......

That's crazy! Can't have been more than a couple of kilo's, surely? Just shows they don't have to be big fish.

I'm a pussy, and subsequently any pelagic over five kg's never makes it into the esky.

Cuzza

[banksmister]

Yep, Cig is Common in Queenies, one was caught up Bundy way and they fed some to the cat.. then ate the fish.. all ended up in Hospital and when they came home fed the rest to the cat.. he ate the lot no problem.. go figure

So the only 1 good reason for cats to be alive is now defunct.
I bet global warming caused that to.

[EdBerg]

That's how I caught my dose of ciguatera, from Queenfish from the Hervey bay area. The local doctor didn't know too much about it so I went to another doc a few days later and he did know something about it as he had been in the tropics at some stage. Apparently if you get a intravenous injection of mannitol with 30 minutes or so it is supposed to reduce the time it takes to get over the symptons, but in tests they studied it also caused side effects so not sure what the current treatment is if any. Either way it is not pleasant to get and once sensitive to the toxin you are apparently sensitive for life.

[Slider]

Was probably about 10kg creat. Read that manitol can help if taken early but have just used asprin and not sure what would help fatigue .... certainly not beer which I can confirm brings the symptoms back. Is logical that queenies would accumulate the toxin when they're feeding on the same prey as the Spanish in that region. They were feeding with them and longtails while we were there.

Was a lot of marine life that we were watching all around the Cape - pelagics, whiting, flathead, dart, hardy head, sharks, rays, turtles, dugong ....much more life than I ever see during the netting season. A situation that has consistently been repeated over the last 30 years for me and the reason why I try to get at least 1 trip to the cape in per year outside the season no matter what the weather is doing. Strong south easters and rain can be an advantage ....

[Stu Dows]

We caught a few off the bottom of Facing Island a few weeks ago cooked one up but wife and I thought it tasted pretty average fed it to the dog who loved it no side effects.

[Just_chips]

You look like you've been eating a few too many fish anyway Lindsay ::), but this is certainly not the way you want to slow down your consumption.

I hope all are quick to recover, everything I've read an also a couple of first hand accounts that I've heard make this sound like a horrible illness.

Kev

[the gecko]

I caught a big Queenie near River Heads and hadnt heard of it in queenies before. I did a lot of research on the net and didnt find anything on cig in queenies easily. I had to go back 6 years on a local hervey bay fishing site to find someone who had a bad case of cig from a queenie, also from River Heads. It is common enough, just not widely understood.

So I used the fillets for bait, and not even the fish would touch it!

A mate of mine had cig from many years ago. He still cannot eat any seafood, and still cant drink alcohol after 15 yrs. Hope you do better in recovery mate, its a nasty thing to catch.

cheers
Andrew

[mitc69]

dam i make sure i release my catches... they taste very nice when i make them into lemon cooked fish larb :)

[Slider]

More likely the JDs Kev.

All seem to have more or les recovered - dog is ball mad again and is just a bit of lethargy affecting the humans. We're all still getting a lactic acid rush to the muscles with any activity, though less each day. Have all been eating fish and prawns and drinking beer (and 1 large and strong JD).
Middle Ck at the end of the month is looking good.

[Just_chips]

More likely the JDs Kev.

All seem to have more or les recovered - dog is ball mad again and is just a bit of lethargy affecting the humans. We're all still getting a lactic acid rush to the muscles with any activity, though less each day. Have all been eating fish and prawns and drinking beer (and 1 large and strong JD).
Middle Ck at the end of the month is looking good.

Sounds like you guys only copped a mild dose. The guy I know first hand who got it bad 30+ years ago still cannot eat any type of seafood, could not get out of bed for almost three months, was off the juice for 2 years or more and his hot & cold senses were all f^%#$d up for well over 12 months including pain when out in direct sunlight.