Colorado and other Western states have hit a roadblock built of disease in their efforts to continue long-standing stocking of tiger muskies.
The discovery of viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) in eight states bordering the Great Lakes prompted the federal government to limit shipping fish from these locations to other parts of the country.
Colorado gets its tiger muskies from Pennsylvania, one of the eight states under the quarantine. The Division of Wildlife typically imports 14,000 to 16,000 young tiger muskies 7 to 8 inches long each year. They are placed in approximately 20 reservoirs statewide.
Greg Gerlich, acting aquatics manager, said the restriction hasn’t had an impact on Colorado’s program.
“We haven’t imported any since last year, prior to when the virus showed up,” he said.
Future stocking depends on tests being conducted by DOW’s Aquatic Health Lab in Brush. Gerlich said the federal response allows each state to use its respective pathology units to determine whether targeted species meet health requirements.
“There’s a list of species shown to be susceptible,” he said. “We’re working on what testing requirements and specifications would be necessary to make sure we don’t import this kind of disease.”
VHS is highly contagious among both cold- and warm-water species. Colorado officials fear that importing tiger muskies might spread the disease to other species and other waters. The disease causes fish to bleed internally. They usually die.
Tiger muskies are a hybrid of muskellunge and northern pike. The name comes from pronounced vertical stripes produced by the combination.
Because they don’t reproduce, tigers are favored by biologists as a large predator popular with anglers whose numbers and location can be controlled precisely.
The Colorado record is a 40-pound, 2-ounce specimen taken in 1994 at Quincy Reservoir in Aurora.
