We found this upper 20lb fish floping around on the surface yesterday he has this growth all over him and was bloated like a dead cow. what is the growth? i have been seeing it on a few fish the last couple week’s? but what ever it is was slowly killing this nice health looking laker!
Hopefully you brought it into the fish and game. Nasty looking disease.
Wow that is nasty looking. I’d be interested to hear what this is?
Looks like a fungus similar to the stuff that appears on the browns in some streams…after the stress of spawning. Never heard of it on lakers but then they usually don’t show up on the surface like that either. It may be something that happens often but is just not witnessed.
Some of the browns recover but most do not…especially if the crud covers a large percentage of their body…or gets in their gills like on that laker.
The explanation I got after first witnessing it on Provo River brown trout spawners is that the process of rolling in the gravel during spawning, together with reduced nutritional intake, removes protective slime and reduces the immune system. It affects some fish but not all…and it is harder on some than others.
**Looks like a fungus similar to the stuff that appears on the browns in some streams…after the stress of spawning. **
The explanation I got after first witnessing it on Provo River brown trout spawners is that the process of rolling in the gravel during spawning, together with reduced nutritional intake, removes protective slime and reduces the immune system. It affects some fish but not all…and it is harder on some than others.
Could easily be from poor/rough handling of the fish too. I’ve seen lots of photos and Youtube videos of big lakers being flopped on the bottom of boats and hugged with dry rough clothing, lots of slime removal there too. I don’t think that does them any good either.
And this is why I dont like to see fish held tight to the person holding it for a snap shot.. The infection risk is very high for the critter when its slim layer is damaged or removed from any part of the fish..
If you rub nyquil on it, that helps it go away.
Ash,
This is most likely what it is. Fish was probably injured somehow (hooking, snagging, spawning) and was infected. The fish will typically die and sink to the bottom so most of the time people don’t see it. Hope that helps:
Sick Fish Link
i looked it up in a fish book it shows it as a final stage of a fungal infection caused by a injury or rough spawn when it makes it to the out side as systs it is almost allways terminal
ther was no hook marks at all in the fish and today I caught a 36lber that had the same growth on its tail! hope its just the spawn thing?
I agree with you on this. Dry hands, gloves, clothing, towel anything that can wipe of “protective” slime. I see this happen to a lot of fish in the Provo.
I don’t know if you would see hook marks?
Burbot disease.
So it begins.
Burbot Disease ??
The only reason I have people hug these big fish is 90% would drop them in the bottom of my boat and kill them anyway! and I would think if that is an issue on these big fish I would have seen it before? with the few that I have ever caught I have not seen it on any. have seen it on dieing salmon.
Scott and I both contacted our fish pathologist, Dr. Chris Wilson, regarding the fish you caught and here’s his response.
“Its probably an abrasion (likely associated with spawning behavior?) that has developed a secondary fungal infection. Often those may affect the gills as well, but I couldn’t tell from the picture. In cold water conditions, the lesions are slow to heal, and often the fish die of fluid/electrolyte loss from the lesions, if they are very extensive.”
Ryan
Thanks Ryan, I knew it had nothing to do with the slime lol or we would have seen it a hell of a lot more! the fish did have very pail gils but once we got the air out of his guts he took of like a rocket maybe he will make it? but my guess was no such luck.
I agree, lots of fish would be dropped, so it sorta falls under the heading of the lesser of two evils.
I still think its a fungal infection of some sorts. Are you seeing on the eater pups or ling?
I don’t think it has anything to do with handling the fish.
Here is what I found on www.aquatext.com
** Ulcerative dermal necrosis**
(U.D.N.) Disease affecting primarily salmonids at spawning time. Shows itself in the form of ulcers, especially on the head area. Ulcers become quickly infected by Saprolegnia, which often causes the diagnosis to be a fungal disease. The fungus is however merely opportunistic, and not the cause of the disease. Cause unknown. Not generally a problem in farmed fish, only wild fish as they enter freshwater to spawn.
That is interesting. But the picture look more like scars and not ulcers.
And sadly, that isn’t conclusive because they state, “cause is unknown”.
I have no idea, but I am just going off the fact it is only a few fish, that is why I think handling issue.