Pelagic fishes - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 274

bodies were crawling with copepods and parasitic flatworms or flukes,
but these external parasites were relatively easily removed with a treat-
ment of formalin. The internal parasites, however, were a more seri-
ous problem. Our veterinarian, Tom Williams, suggested a drug called
Praziquantil, which is used to deworm cats and dogs. The molas were
all feeding readily from our hands, and it was a simple matter to hide
a small pill in a morsel of their fresh shrimp. The next day we were de-
lighted—and a little disgusted—to see balls of tapeworms lying on the
bottom of their tank. Judging from the size of the balls, some of those
worms must have been fifteen feet long.
The molas were doing well and growing rapidly until about two
months later, when we began to have trouble with the water system
and water quality. The rapid growth of the fish, which led to greater
food intake, simply overloaded the water treatment system, resulting
in a buildup of waste products beyond what the system could handle.
Two of the molas went o¤ their food, began to deteriorate, and died.
Autopsies revealed that the deworming treatments had worked and they
were completely clean of parasites. Meanwhile, the one remaining mola
thrived and kept growing at an alarming rate.
Freya kept track of exactly how much food each mola was eating each
day, and it seemed as if they were noticeably larger each week. After
fourteen months, the remaining mola was so big that when its dorsal
fin was at the surface, its lower anal fin was close to touching the bot-
tom of the six-foot-deep tank.
Because of its size, plus the fact that we needed the tank for our bonito
and barracuda research, we decided to release the mola while it was
still small enough to be safely moved. The warmer water temperature
in the Bay also influenced the timing of this operation. John O'Sulli-
van made up a four-foot-diameter stainless steel ring inside which he
laced a circle of flexible, smooth plastic (it looked something like a gi-
ant pizza pan), and this we slipped beneath the mola. The giant fish
was laid flat on the plastic, and with sheer muscle power and consid-
erable e¤ort we lifted it up and over the edge of its tank and into the
transport tank, which was then lifted by crane into the collecting boat
on its trailer. Once safely in the boat it was taken out to sea and re-