Saw some dark fish with what appeared to be white- colored glowing patches. They were amongst bluegills, but the bluegills did not have the patches on them. They appeared injured or sluggish. Caught them with a net, and what appeared to be the white patches was a mucus- like slime. It appeared to eat through the scales or fins that it was on. I froze both of the fish and still have them in the freezer. Any Ideas on what causes this?
I've looked at the photo, and I can't make out the patches you describe. It does look like the tail is a little ragged, either from spawning activity or from having been in a cage for several days. Maybe I'm just not seeing it.
If you didn't put them in a cage, does anyone else have access to the pond and perhaps they did and then released them? The frayed tails look like classic fin wear from being in a fish basket or small holding cage. It would explain the stress and the fungus could be from rough handling of catch and release.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
The Crappies are from a canal area of our 50 acre lake. At least two home owners/fisherman in that canal are reporting these fish. Most of the fisherman in our lake do catch and release but the majority of small fish being caught from docks are BG. The BG are not being noticed to have the problem. Are Crappies particularly fragile?
After the spawn they are. I've seen dozens on local lakes here either floating or near floating due to being susceptible to both predation and disease after exerting so much energy during the spawn.
