 Rank: May Fly
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It's likely brookies have coexisted with gill lice for thousands of years. It's only becoming a problem now because of warming waters and the introduction of brown trout.
Plant a tree, kill a brown, repeat.
We can stop this if we want to.
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 Rank: Stone Fly
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What do brown trout have to do with the gill lice equation? The only stream I’ve encountered Gill lice was a section that was exclusively brook trout. Edited by user Tuesday, June 26, 2018 12:49:26 AM(UTC)
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 Rank: Midge
Joined: 5/4/2016(UTC) Posts: 83  Location: Wisconsin Thanks: 6 times
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Originally Posted by: Gurth  What do brown trout have to do with the gill lice equation?
The only stream I’ve encountered Gill lice was a section that was exclusively brook trout. Because Brown Trout cause decreases in Brook Trout recruitment and increase their stress - which makes them more susceptible to gill lice. From the abstract of the article linked previously, Quote:Conditions in 2012 conducive to an epizootic included anomalously warm stream temperatures, relative drought conditions, and an increasing sympatric population of Brown Trout.
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Rank: Stone Fly
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We had a historic drought in 2012 as well as a warm summer, iirc. Was an outlier year. Most research would throw a year (or other factor) like that out altogether. Brown trout certainly contributed stress to the brook trout as they do, but the drought and warmer temps would seem to be far greater factors that particular year. Would be an awfully big coincidence otherwise. Gotta think the herons had a banner year too. Anecdotal I realize, but have never seen any gill lice in the several streams down here that I fish that contain both species. I think it's a simplification to blame brown trout for gill lice. Declines in brook trout waters? Absolutely. There's no question that browns take over. . Edited by user Tuesday, June 26, 2018 2:46:33 AM(UTC)
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Rank: May Fly
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I'm not placing all the blame on brown trout, but they do deserve a percentage of it. They place further stress on brook trout that are already stressed due to other factors. They force them out of prime lies and push them upstream into headwaters where they all congregrate together and pass the lice to each other.
Another factor is beavers and their damn dams. Stagnant water is a paradise for gill lice.
It would be one thing if all browns did was thin out the brookie populations thus keeping them healthy and allowing them to grow bigger and remain free from gill lice due to less crowding, but that's not at all what happens in reality. They take over the stream slowly until the brookies occupy but a fraction of their once home water.
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