Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings: Personal observations on a wide variety of subjects. Photographs of creatures and things that are taken on seeing the unusual as well as everyday things.

Dead fish …

The day started out with a blush of promise. There was a watery sun wanly pushing its light through the window pane. I opened the door to allow the cat out to do her toilet and got smacked in the face by a cold wind. I was a little excited as the frogs had been mating and I was anticipating frogspawn and so made my way over to the pond. The birds were dutifully calling … it’s time to look for a mate. The path gave way to crunchy pebbles which usually brings the fish to the surface of the pond looking for breakfast, lunch or supper. Today, I could see no sign of them until I got right to the edge and they were all gathered in a small circle with the bottom feeders. On the far side by a small rock one fish was at the water’s edge. I walked round to it ……. it was upright and motionless. It was dead.

I have seen many dead fish before – in rivers, brooks, streams, the sea and in my garden pond but I have never seen one die in a perfectly upright position until now. I think it had been dead for about four or more hours as there was a slight coating about its corpse.

This particular fish was in some ways non descript apart from having a wide and long tail fin and top and bottom fins that fanned like soft seaweed peacock tails. It was a fifteen year old goldfish that I had purchased as a baby when it measured just three centimetres long. The strange thing about its death was there were two depressions one at each gill point. The gill had appeared to indent or compress and either side of its head there was a dip as though it had been pressed in with a marble. I have never encountered this before.

Has anyone seen a fish death like this? Does anyone know whether this is a disease? Do I have to worry about the rest of the shoal?

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Finny (the dead goldfish - at the bottom of the picture with the large tail)

This particular goldfish remained a medium sized fish all its life and was buried under a shady Bramley apple tree near to the gooseberry bush.

9 comments:

Christopher Jones said...

murder, sabotage, or a bet for horribly wrong. One of the living fist have the gruesome details. Good luck with trying to get one of them to rat the others out.

Mike Golch said...

sorry never seen that before.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely no idea. Maybe something tried to put it in its mouth? hence the indentations?

Meryl (proud pinay) said...

i have no idea too...

they are pretty though..sigh...

www.mymeryl.com

Meryl (proud pinay) said...

i have no idea too...

pretty fish though..sigh

Dorothy said...

I've never heard of it before either hope someone who reads this will be able to help.



Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com

efaqffqaewfm said...

Interesting... here's what I found:

"Hole in the Head - HITH, sometimes referred to as Head and Lateral Line Erosion - HLLE: Characterized by small holes or indentations on the head of fish, advanced cases may show markings along the lateral line of the fish. They may stop eating.

There are many theories out there, but no conclusive scientific evidence as to what exactly causes this disease. However, it may be attributed to poor water quality, lack of proper nutrition and/or the use of activated carbon for prolonged periods. However, there have been no scientific studies about the effects of the prolonged use activate carbon causing hole in the head, it's just speculation. Be sure to give your fish the best water that you can by performing frequent water changes. Give them vitamin enriched foods and change out or stop using activated carbon."

Hope it helps solve the mystery! You have a blog award on my blog, just so you know :o)

Crista said...

R.I.P to the fishie..I hope nothing bad happened to him!

Jackie said...

Polly my daughter raises all kind of fish. She has for years and she has never heard of such a death like this either.

If it was me I would probably take the dead fish to a specialty store that deals with fish and have it checked out.

She said in over 20 years, even when her fish have died from old age....she has never heard of one dieing like this.

I do so hope you find out!!

Jackie