Ottis Jaggers, Sophomore, Phoenix School of Discovery, Kentucky Dr. Robert Durborow, Professor & State Extension Specialist for Aquaculture Research
For the last two weeks I have been apprenticing under a fish disease specialist named Dr. Durborow. With Dr. Durborow I have learned many things including, how to diagnose fish diseases and issues, how to test bacteria, and how to check for parasites. I participated in a great deal of experiments that included testing dead fish for diseases, water quality tests, and mass dissections to take tissue samples. The last two weeks have been very insightful and have helped me grow as not only a person, but as an aspiring student.
The first dissection that I participated in was from not far away from the Kentucky State University (KSU) campus. Mysteriously, many fish had gained abscesses on their skin, which at first glance, resembled that of a parasite. Shortly into the exploratory dissection, we found that they did not have parasites, but rather, some form of disease. It was decided to take samples to investigate further; one from the brain, one from the infected spot, and some from many other body parts. The samples, and the collected bacteria, were allowed to sit and propagate into colonies. For the first twenty-four hours, it did not seem to have any bacteria, but after forty-eight hours it began to form large colonies. Multiple types of colonies were present: a small white colony, a small tan colony, and large mucus like colony of which seemed the most likely to be the