Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Otherwise healthy perch with spinal deformity

Got this fish today that is of normal weight other than some type of spinal deformity. I've seen this once before with a feed trained bass.

If I had to guess, I'd say that fish primarily utilized pellets. He doesn't look like he could chase down prey very effectively.

We've talked about tail deformities before, and I've seen 2 or 3 - but that is the worst I have heard about or encountered. It looks like you've got an eater.

The fact that it is "normal weight" in one of your ponds proves it has been disadvantaged in foraging.

The times I have seen this in other fish it has been explained by a fish pathologist as either a deformity or the result of an egg which hatched too fast and wasn't able to develop.

Interesting comments. I've also heard another possible explanation Bob is a nutritional problems in it's formative stage.

"It looks like you've got an eater."

Actually I saved it Theo. So you don't think Bass Pro Shops will want it in their aquarium?
I think it would be an interesting fish to have in an aquarium myself. I thought I'd charge double.

Fish deformities occur at similar rates to many other organisms.

The vast majority of deformities result in individuals without viability. Most of them we never see.

It is my personal belief, from what I've seen with striped bass hybrids, that populations that are provided with pelleted feed result in higher deformity rates amongst adults, due to the fact that fish with deformities aren't forced to compete for food with their physical prowess. I.E., this fish wouldn't have a chance in Lake Erie, but did just fine with easy to "capture" pellets.

A corollary would be near-sightedness in humans. In the wild, it would be selected out, but in our "pellet-fed" world we just make glasses or contacts and everybody gets along just fine.

You're absolutely right. Same goes with albino fish in the wild. They get picked off pronto. Perhaps I had more feeding on pellets then I thought.

I'm starting to think I have harvested more big perch than I originally planted! Too bad I am terrible at record keeping. We're up to 46 big perch today. Fishing was slow due to high winds with gusts up to 55 mph. Made it miserable fishing until you got a big perch on! :p

How many of those 46 yellow perch will go to BPS, Cecil?

All except for the one with the deformity. They said they will take as many as possible.

Wish I could bring some with me to Nebraska! I'd be glad to give them to you. But your state would reqire the sacrifice and testing of 60 perch for VHS and heterosporis.

I see the same thing in wild LMB every once in a while, I like to call them "stumpy tail bass" and they are rarer than catching a 5lb'er in NE. I have seen 3 or 4 of them in our pond in the last 20 years. All of them have appeared healthy, just much shorter than normal, all of them have been 14-15" long.

As everyone has mentioned, sometimes these are just genetic occurrences. However, there can be nutritional causes. I'm not a nutrition expert, but I do know from experience (sadly) that a tryptophan deficiency will cause spinal deformities in small (inch or less) largemouth bass. So, nutrition is an alternate explanation that may at times be involved. However, I wouldn't expect tryptophan deficiency in wild fish, as that amino acid is quite plentiful in most crustaceans, including zooplankton.

"tryptophan deficiency"

Perhaps we need to feed our fish more turkey.

Sounds like an entrepreneurial opportunity to me!

I've seen something like that happen to inbred fancy guppies. I've only seen 1 or 2 deformed fish outside of that. I caught a bass once from my lake that looked somewhat like that but it was sharper and looked more like a healing gash.