05 December 2009

Pic of the moment: 5 December 2009


This is a sick crayfish. As readers may know, I am not a pathologist or parasitologist, so I have little idea what these black spots may be or how to combat them. We’ve definitely had some animals die prematurely due to whatever these are. Any information would be most welcome!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This could be a melanisation as a response to a possible enteric bacterial infection.

For a general first shot just check up:

Brett F. Edgerton et al.:
"Synopsis of freshwater crayfish diseases and commensal organisms"
Aquaculture 206 (2002) 57–135

But such spots can appear to any kind of infection as they just indicate the immunesystem simply being working.