Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Disease in fish

I recently caught fish of 3 species from a 9 acre club lake: 2 bass, 1 bluegill, and 1 crappie. Each had an ugly sore the size of a quarter on one side and their bodies were contorted, sort of twisted. One of the bass, 19" long was very skinny. Does anyone recognize this disease and know what action needs to be taken?

Take a look at this link and note that stress is a big factor.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000295;p=1#000000

Then you can go to the second link and look at pics to see some examples. Note near the bottom of the first page of this link that there are 6 pages of pics.

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/fish/image_gallery/categories.php?cat_id=61&page=1

Some of those examples are pretty gnarly, Eric. I'm never gonna complain about fish lice again.

Sounds like your pond is out of balance creating a food shortage for your predator fish. This in turn is stressing them. However as far as a diagnosis no reputable fish pathologist would make a diagnosis without taking sample of live fish, swabs etc.

As far as the contorted fish they could be again be suffering a lack of proper nutrition in the formative stages albeit they may get enough food later. Is your water very clear lacking phytoplankton which zooplankton feeds on and supplies food for you fry?

Most pathogens are always there and only attack fish when they are stressed. You need to determine what is stressing them and change the situation.

Thankyou gentlemen for the replies. I was not smart enough to save the diseased fish for submittal to the state biologist. I will attempt to catch one more. To answer Cecil: there is pretty good color to the water and most fish that we catch appear to be well nourished. However, we have large populations of bluegills and shellcrackers in the 8" size area and crappies in the 12" size area. Also, there is a large population of stunted bass 8" to 12". There could very well be the start of a food shortage. I viewed the pictures on the Auburn site and did not see an identical sore. The closest is a catfish on page 5.

Thanks again.