Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Lesions on Bream

I noticed missing scales & a red puffy sores on bream 7" & smaller, all on the posterior of the fish. I have seen no lesions on larger bream. I saw no parasites. I played tug of war with a LMB for a 7" bream. I noticed missing scales on that bream.

Could attachs by LMB be the reasons for these lesions? I am not sure. Do scales grow back as feathers do? Do replaced scales have a different look?

Yes, scales do grow back.

I am not sure if there is a different look just by looking at them with your eye, but if you are using a microscope you can tell the difference.

I have seen what I assumed were healed scar patterns from prior predator attacks on BG. Anyone else seen anything like this?

In the interest on common decency and good taste I will not comment on the above remark. Even though it's causing me to exert an extreme amount of self control. It is not only difficult, but yes, even borderline painful to let such a wide open opportunity such as this escape without a humorous comment or captioned picture. I believe that this may be evidence that I am learning to take the high road and possibly even maturing (ok well maybe that's a stretch.)

However when either Brettski or GW read the above sentence all bets are off.

Jeez after posting the above comment Pond Boss crashed (at least for me). I thought for a moment that Theo had used the top secret "Moderator Micro Wave Death Blast" and nuked my computer. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending upon your point of view) after a few minutes I was able to log back on to Pond Boss.

Perhaps it was just a near miss.

JEC can you post a pic of the effected fish ? Probably not caused by LMB given their feeding (attack) method.

From my understanding from my limited education in fisheries and my observations as a taxidermist, scales do indeed grow back in most instances unless the wounds or lesions are so severe the fish succumbs to a bacterial infection. However the scales that grow back are usually smaller than the original, if say, there is more than one. It's possible if the fish looses one scale the new scale may eventually catch up with the surrounding scales in size.

I have seen numerous fish in my career as a fish taxidermist that had "regenerated scales" in groups much smaller than the surrounding scales.

I am sorry I did not think to take photos. The tug of war fish would have been an interesting photo. He was almost scale less from the dorsal fin & posterior.