Herpesviruses have been isolated and determined to be pathogens in a number of economically important food fish species including channel catfish and rainbow trout Other herpesviruses have been visualized in skin lesions of Pacific cod, northern pike, smooth dogfish, sheat fish, and smelt.¹

In ornamental fish, viral diseases arc not yet well described or characterized. Herpes virus-like particles have been observed in splenic tissues of sick angelfish. One diagnostic lab has observed herpesvirus-associated lesions in the common plecostomus, Hypotonus plecistomus.²

Imported shipments of the Blue-Eyed Plecostomus occasionally come into one facility with the following disease progression. Small irregular gray/white spots or blotches may be noticed on one or two specimens. Within one or two days, these skin lesions will be seen on all specimens, coalescing to form large discolored and eroded areas on the skin. These lesions appear to ulcerate, and within a few days from first observations of these lesions, all fish are dead. Tissue samples of moribund fish from one such shipment were sent for histopathology and for electron microscopy. Herpesvirus-like particles were seen on electron microscopy of the skin lesions.

References

1.  Wolf, Ken, 1988. Fish Viruses and Fish Viral Diseases. Comstock Publishing Associates/Cornell Univ. Press. 476 pp.

2.  Frazer, Woody. 1994. Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab., Kissimmee, FL. personal communication.