Worms in Fish

[oldboot]

If you are worried about worms in fish......worms in meat are more of a problem and can most certainly effect your health......you can get a tape worm by eating beef/ lamb/pork that has in intermediate form of the tape worm in its flesh... and they are almost imposible to spot visulay.

eating the flesh of sheep with liver flukes can allow you to contract an infestation...... this can kill you

there is a particular worm like creature that you can get infested by from eating raw or undercooked beef .... this is a tiny creature that lives in your brain and can bee seen only by byopsy........in some populations the infestation rate is a significant portion of the population.

almost without exception all of these are killed by proper cooking.... most however survive normal refrigeration just fine.


I think you will understand why I will not eat raw meat of any type including fish.
AND I like my steak,.... well done.

I believe that the eskimos consider maggots from stored whale flesh a particularly special delicay.

If you are even the least squeamish.... do not even start to investigate parasites.
It has been enough to send people vegitarian..... but remember most of the intestinal worms have part of their life cycle on foaliage and this is the primary channel of infestation ........so you'll give up salad too.

If you are having difficulty with children taking medication..... tell them all about parasites with lots of pictures.... and then tell them it is a worm tablet
Very much a tried and true method in the 50's and 60's.

Whe knew a family that has a boarding kennel and was a do breeder...... MRS used to worm the dogs, the children and the husband every 6 months without fail

Worrrrms.

cheers

[roz]

How did those yellow tail fillets go Roz? I was under the impression it was that parasite that caused the fillets to cook like poop. Some kingies I caught went bad but I never actually saw this worm in the flesh.

Grubs seem to be common in trout and cod up here off Yeppoon. I don't call them worms as they are short n fat and ooze a black mess just like garden grubs. Usually these things live under the fatty layer in the gut against the rib cage and along the spine. One cod I recently caught some big ones the size of a thumb within the flesh, but after a few surgical procedures the fillet was fit for a king. Just don't bring it up at the table "hey this is the cod with the big grubs...it tastes fine."

Clay

No Clay, the worms didn't change the texture or flavour, however I have heard of the odd kingie fillets turning mushie, but it seemed quite rare.

The only place I've heard it happening was off the Tweed and points north, never from the NSW south coast, of course I can't be 100% sure.

I really don't think worms in the flesh of fish is a big deal, normal part of nature.

Not to metion that at some point in our lives we've all had worms in our digestive systems LOL.

cheers roz.

[yellowbeard]

Coop told me that most of the blackfish that they clean are "full of grubs." Don't know why they told me, 'cause I don't be 'em anymore.

[brisryan]

Hi,

Ive never actually seen this myself and after reading everyone's posts I had to find out, if anyone's interested, check this out:


Regards,
Ryan

[dreemon]

I think I'll check my fish more carefully from now on ,

Brisryan, did the filets still taste the same ?

[Nic]

Ryan that vid is gross... I'm feeling a bit less blazé about worms than I was before. Uuuuurgh... *ulp*

On occasion I have caught freshwater fish with a weird lump or two on their skin. I don't know if these are lesions from infections, or from worms. How can you tell the difference? If they are worms, I would like to help the fish by picking them off.

[PNG1M]

We used to catch those muddy 'pink eye' mullet up a creek off the Clarence River years back. When cleaning them we often noticed bundles of worms clinking to the stomach lining. Yep, it did put us off a bit and any fish that were particularly riddled we chucked under a bush lemon tree for fertilizer (along with the catfish).

Most of the pink eyes though we still wacked the fillets off and shallow fried the shite out of 'em for 20 mins at max temp (to kill any potential creepies). They seemed to taste ok and we never ended up doubled over with intestinal cramps. We did go off the old 'pink eye' though as they were too muddy - which was compounded by the worms.

I thought that once the worms were scraped out of the gut and the fillets were washed that'd be the end of em. I didn't think the worms could actually be in the fishes flesh. Geeze, now I do feel sick - even if it is 20 years later!

I do like that Combantrin idea though! Maybe soak the fillets in a liquid suspension 24hrs before cooking. That'd sort the buggers out - then look at em in the magnifying glass all doubled up & carked it.

[Freeeedom]

Caught a reasonable longtom at Mud on Thursday. Brought it home because they are a lovely eating fish with very good flavour. When I took the fillets off I changed my mind about eating this one. Check out the number of worms
Cheers Freeeedom

[BLOOEY]

Does anybody know if they infect tuna. Because i always have a few bits of sashimi with wasabi and soy when i catch them? Also why some fish and not others? Have caught small jew that i couldn't eat because there were more worms than flesh and big jew with none at all. Ben

[oldboot]

Guess why the small jew was small.

cheers

[Freeeedom]

Does anybody know if they infect tuna. Because i always have a few bits of sashimi with wasabi and soy when i catch them? Also why some fish and not others? Have caught small jew that i couldn't eat because there were more worms than flesh and big jew with none at all. Ben

I've had the same thing Ben. Little ones full of them and big ones with none at all. Also, although I've had big ones with a few, I've never had a big one with huge numbers in it, and I never seem to find many, if any at all, in medium size jew - around the 4-6 kg mark.
I haven't caught a lot of tuna so I can't really comment on them (although I've not found worms in the omes I've caught), but I have found worms (of various kinds) in bream, luderick, jew, yellowtail kings, coral trout, cobia and now longtom. Have never found a worm in whiting (summer or winter), flathead, tailor, mackerel (school, spooty or spaniard),snapper, parrot and other reefies.
Almost all fish are likely to have parasitic worms in their digestive system, but we don't usually see them. The ones in the flesh are most likely encysted forms which transfer to a new (and bigger) host when the fish gets eaten by another predator (fish, shark or bird most likely).
Cheers Freeeedom

[kingtin]

The ones in the flesh are most likely encysted forms which transfer to a new (and bigger) host when the fish gets eaten by another predator (fish, shark or bird most likely).
Cheers Freeeedom

From memory, I think I read that mammals and birds are the reproductive host............ the worms don't reproduce in fish but in dolphins, turtles, etc. Fish are the intermediate host.

kev

[Freeeedom]

From memory, I think I read that mammals and birds are the reproductive host............ the worms don't reproduce in fish but in dolphins, turtles, etc. Fish are the intermediate host.

kev

Because the chances of a successful transfer from one host to another is so small, most parasites have the capability of massive reproduction at each stage of their life cycle. Usually however that reproduction is sexual in only one stage of the life cycle and is asexual in the other(s). The host in which sexual reproduction occurs is considered as the definitive (main) host and the others are the intermediate host(s). I'm not sure if the life cycles of many of these marine parasites are understood very well. When you realise that there are more parasitic species in the animal world than there are free living ones, and that we don't even know everything about the free living ones, then it would be no surprise if very little is known about them. That said, encysted tapeworms are an intermediate form in the case of the pork tapeworm and the beef tapeworm, so you are probably right, Kev, in saying that fish are the intermediate host. Not sure if that would still be the case with the nematodes - the other major group of parasitic worms.
Cheers Freeeedom
Cheers Freeeedom

[Dignity]

I think I have found worms in every variety of fish I have caught. Some are dark blue as in coral trout, maggot yellow as in parrot. Does water temp play a part as I do notice that there appears to be more evident in parrot in the warmer months but rarely in winter. The vid was gross but as we put our fish on ice immedieately so we don't see them moving and cut them out, certainly puts a different perspective on things. Some of the ones I've seen in parrot have been several inches long.

[khemo1]

So are these saltwater worm parasites able to infect humans? i know we can get parasites from uncooked freshwater fish but not so sure about salt water.

Recently I filleted some bream from Hope Island and found long (5-6 cm) red worms in the gut cavity. They were mostly fluid and burst when I poked them with a sharp knife.