Abstract
Saprolegnia is an oomycete that infects through dead material and feeds on that material. Saprolegnia has been around since the mid eighteenth-century infecting fish species (Bruno et. al. 2011). Europe and many other countries have dealt with Saprolegnia outbreaks, in both hatcheries and in the wild. Because Saprolegnia attacks dead materials, fish eggs are a prime target. For example, survival from egg to smolt in salmon is 85-95% in hatcheries (Araki et al. 2008). The other 5-15% are nonviable eggs, which allows Saprolegnia to infect and spread. Saprolegnia uses hyphae to spread from dead, or nonviable eggs, to live effs through chemotaxis, which is when bacteria are attracted to certain molecules (Shammari et al. 2010). Saprolegnia is present in all freshwater systems, and since malachite green was banned in the United States in 2002, Saprolegnia has been costing aquacultures and hatcheries millions of dollars every year, with salmon being hit the hardest (Meyer 1991). The question that this research aims to address is: How does temperature affect the rate of growth of Saprolegnia?