Out of curiosity, what opportunistically eats the gills and excretory (anal and urogenital) pores of dying/dead fish? I've attached a picture of 1 for an example.

Background: I recently found 8 of my 48 YP floating or washed up over the course of a week. My SBS and minnow population seem to be fine. The first 5 were "just dead," as in no other damage to them. I did just add 16 YP about 3 weeks prior. Bill and I decided the loss in general was mostly likely due to the stress of seining and transporting 8-10" YP in the middle of the spawn as 5 of the 8 were recent adds. As for the other 3, they all can't be winners and not all animals live long lives. The last 3 found (both new this year and last year stocking) had varying degrees of their gills and excretory pores eaten out, meat was untouched. I still think these last 3 died, or were dying from stress, I'm just wondering if there's anything that classically targets these areas. I would have thought a turtle wouldn't have been so selective. I do have lots of ping pong ball sized bull frog tadpoles this year, maybe they were feeding on those areas post-mortem? Thanks for all help and time spent, just curious as to what feeds like this.

I have no clue as to which specific organism is targeting your dead YP in such a fashion. (Hopefully, the experts will know.)

However, almost everything that eats carrion in the wild, starts on the easiest parts. Especially for any larger animal with tough skin, hide, scales, etc.

Crows, gulls, and other birds will start on the eyes. Four-legged carrion eaters in North America or the African plains will start on the excretory soft parts of big game, as you noted on your fish.

I will definitely come back to your thread to learn what the consensus says on your poor YP. I hope the rest of your YP can survive through their stress period!

I've had several days of not finding any floaters, and last night they finally surface ate (with the SBS) with a fury. Before "death week," they were surface eating very well, then it slowed waaayyy down to the point I was concerned about how many nonfloaters there might be. Last night eased my mind. I didn't had a problem last year, but they were mainly 6-8ers" and all females. I was accidently given 9 males this year due to time constraints at pick up and I couldn't go through them until I got home, but ultimately decided I was already going to switch to a reproducing pond down the road, might as well now so I I can fish it more, and eat more out of it. All the females have been spawned out, and the males were producing milt when I put them in, so hopefully I got some fertilization. Lesson learned, avoiding transferring large fish during spawn time in the future!

This is something I have not witnessed.. I'd like to hear from Cody on this.