# Live worms in my fish! Ewww! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 9, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796 "2013-02-09T16:18:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.Pu-du-he-pa-as)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/1 "2013-02-09T16:18:49Z")
So, I got some fish at the grocery store yesterday, only to discover when I brought it home that it had at least three still-living inch-long worms in it. Eeeew. I threw it all away. Ewwww. Have any of you had a similar experience? ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/2 "2013-02-09T16:20:28Z")
It could be worse, you could have found HALF a worm. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/3 "2013-02-09T16:24:00Z")
I hadn’t bought it but I saw a piece of fish in a supermarket one time that had a live worm poking its head out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/4 "2013-02-09T16:24:22Z")
You shouldn’t shop at the Klingon Grocery. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/5 "2013-02-09T16:25:17Z")
Very common in fresh wild-caught fish. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/6 "2013-02-09T16:43:03Z")
Moved Cafe Society --\> MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/7 "2013-02-09T16:45:00Z")
At least you knew it was fresh ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/8 "2013-02-09T16:57:04Z")
Are you sure they’re not just [fish innards](http://imgur.com/mNr9t)? [Earlier thread on the subject.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=643872) ---
**Author:** ![Crab\_Rangoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Crab\_Rangoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crab_Rangoon)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/9 "2013-02-09T16:57:16Z")
Extra protein? ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/10 "2013-02-09T17:44:28Z")
Was it swordfish by any chance? That’s why swordfish needs to be cooked through, no swordfish suhi ever! ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/11 "2013-02-09T18:06:36Z")
Yeah, in Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain says he’s never gotten through a fresh swordfish and NOT found live worms in it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/12 "2013-02-10T09:00:28Z")
I used to attend annual conferences of marine mammal trainers. At one of them, a veterinarian gave a talk about parasite infestation in marine mammals. It seems that approximately 100% of wild pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) are infested with worms. They get it from the raw fish they eat, which likewise have a high infestation rate. In captive situations (like at the marine parks with the trained seal and dolphin shows), the fish is bought, frozen in large blocks. (At the lab where I worked, various people took turns thawing the fish.) The word was, freezing the fish kills the parasites in them. So you would NEVER want to eat fresh never-frozen raw fish. If you’re going to eat sashimi (or sushi or whatever raw fish is properly called), it MUST be frozen first, then thawed. Myself, I wouldn’t want to try even that. Cooked fish only for me, please. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/13 "2013-02-10T12:19:31Z")
It’s happened to me, yes. The fish gets eaten minus the worms, following extra-careful frying. They weren’t swordfish, it was a small light-meat fish that’s very cheap and popular in Spain (we divide fish in “light” and “dark” and this is the cheapest light one). ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/14 "2013-02-10T13:00:11Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > So you would NEVER want to eat fresh never-frozen raw fish. If you’re going to eat sashimi (or sushi or whatever raw fish is properly called), it MUST be frozen first, then thawed. Myself, I wouldn’t want to try even that. Cooked fish only for me, please. The thought occurs to me—has [IRRADIATING](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation) fresh fish ever been done to kill parasitic worms, specifically? If not, hey, potential market. 😃 [![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2Zrpzk2EXgg/Tx6fXCDavII/AAAAAAAAAFM/1qtTTFHYvYI/s1600/Nucleo.jpg) ](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2Zrpzk2EXgg/Tx6fXCDavII/AAAAAAAAAFM/1qtTTFHYvYI/s1600/Nucleo.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/15 "2013-02-10T13:30:38Z")
I’d return them before I threw them out. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/16 "2013-02-10T13:47:14Z")
All Pacific grey cod have worms. Every one. Most are found in the belly meat, which is trimmed away during processing over a candling table, which is lit from below, and the worms show up as [little curled up cheerios](http://cdn.stripersonline.com/8/87/873d5289_vbattach5970.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/17 "2013-02-10T13:51:59Z")
I’ve found worms of some sort in both flour and shredded wheat. Eww. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/18 "2013-02-10T17:00:38Z")
I’ve bought fish with them. A while ago I read an article written by a doctor who had a patient with some serious abdominal pain, they operated (I think they thought he had appendicitis), and when they opened him up, a thin little red thing was squirming around inside him – it was a worm from some fish he’d eaten. ---
**Author:** ![orderfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orderfire/32/10908_2.png) [@orderfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orderfire)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/19 "2013-02-11T00:37:29Z")
Working in restaurants years ago, I spent a good amount of time breaking down whole fish and large cuts of the big fish. The potential barf moment came while I was portioning a big (like, thigh-sized) halibut flank and sliced through some huge muscle parasite as big around as my finger. _Retch_ I’ll probably never eat halibut again. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-worms-in-my-fish-ewww/649796/20 "2013-02-11T02:05:15Z")
Yeah, when I found out about how common parasites are in fish, that was pretty much the end of my consumption of seafood. Even though it’s safe to eat it when it’s cooked, it’s still just the idea… (Since then I’ve become a vegetarian, and if I were forced to choose a type of meat to eat, I would definitely not make it seafood)