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THIS IS NOT MY FISH
I CANNOT TREAT THIS FISH.

I simply thought it was interesting.

This fish was in a quarrantine pond at a dealer/breeder.

Can anyone tell me how this fish has ended up with 2 similar sized circular holes out of its body?

There was a smaller fish in the same pond with the same hole out of its back...

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For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Beats the heck out of me. Could it have been a rogue pleco or other similar fish? I'm curious too.

Is that algae growing out of the wound?

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

That is algae, growing on what looks to be its spine.

I was thinking, maybe a syphon?

Or a really hungry snail?

They are kept in koi-only ponds, so i can't see it being a sucker-fish injury, as that'd be my first thought too.

Its got me beat!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Those koi ponds (from the pics I've seen ) look uncovered.....any chance a bird decided to take a bite for lunch .
I know koi are pretty fast when they want to be but if someone decided to try their luck .

^_^[hr width='40%']"Love's the Funeral Of Hearts, and an ode for cruelty,
When angels cry blood, on flowers of evil in bloom
and a plea for mercy,
where Love is a gun separating me from you" ~[/font]

I bet a raccoon tried to catch it.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Well, i can't see a bird getting 3 x perfect circles, or a racoon for that matter (not that we have racoons, but the closest thing to it, possum or dog or cat i guess)

Its just too... neat?

I mean, it almost looks like someone has sliced it with a bottlecap.

And there is no major infection. It doesn't look nice, but it also doesn't look festering and infected to any great extent either...



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I've seen several injuries to koi caused by raccoons and possums (the most common predators around here), and they look remarkably similar to that.

The fact that the wound isn't fuzzy or discolored probably indicates that the fish was attacked and not sick.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Wounds like that can be caused by migratory tapeworm, incredible as it may seem these worms can migrate to all tissues in the body of a fish often congregating in circular patches ( often known as cysts)of flesh just underneath the fish's skin.Unlike the internal organs fish can mount a more spirited immuno defense closer to the skin surface and often such tapeworm are rejected directly outwards during the healing process of tissue rejection. This leaves almost perfectly spherical wounds. Strange and pretty gross.


Another condition can also leave such characteristic wounds and that is the inaptly named ringworm. Ringworm is actually a kind of fungal infection that leaves characteristically round or oval wounds on the host,it is outrageously contagious and affects mammals , reptiles and fish.I too was surprised that fish can contract it , until I started looking into it.


Lampreyes can also leave such wounds, and although they are thought of as a marine fish, a lot are brought upstream by salmon migrations, and they often survive several months in freshwater.Lampreyes do get about, although thepersistant lack of high salinity will mean that they do not remain a persistant problem.

One of streptococcus bacteria's less common symptoms can be the shedding of inflamed sores which again leave circular,fresh looking wounds.

Plecostomus and various synodont catfish can leave circular wounds on koi, but presumably youd notice if such a catfish was present since it would have to be at least the same size as the koi judging by the diameter of the wound.

Basically a circular wound in koi can be caused by many reasons, usually bacterial, and the shape of the wound is not necessarily characteristic to the causative agent, as koi will often shed tissue from ulcers, sores and cysts in a fairly uniform way, this being to shed or reject circular patches of infected tissue. A lot of people look at these wounds and assume there has to be something inflicting wounds from without , rather than from within as is usually the case.


That a circular wound in koi isnt fuzzy can actually mean that the problem is already being dealt with, and that the wound was largely cauterised below the skin before the flesh came free. A fresh wound can become fuzzy within hours,while a wound as a result of tissue rejection will almost never become immediately reinfected, so it cannot be assumed that the wound was inflicted externally from this.

Think of these wounds as being similar to blisters in a human being, and youll get the general idea.Unfortunately fish often show no sign of swelling or discolouration at the wound site prior to the tissue being rejected, so its very difficult to tell the wounds from an injury.

If youre worried about predation, get a net over the pond.These wounds could be caused by a number of birds, seagulls for example although unable to pull such heavy fish as adult koi from the water will happily use their beaks , which often have a recurved tip - to pull plugs of flesh from larger fish. Large fish sometimes use seagulls to remove parisitised patches of skin deliberately, taking a small wound rather than suffer from an irritating parasite infection. Seagulls might actually have a better eye for parasitised tissue than we do! Some freshwater birds will perform this service/ predation too. In the UK, some keepers will see these wounds as the result of mink attacks, but our friends in the US have a more diverse spectrum of predators to choose from, but again it is the way tissue breaks away in koi that leaves the circular wounds, not neccesarily the actual dentition or bite radius of the attacking animal.


In this picture is also apparent that the koi has a huge number of small pits, raised areas, and small cysts on its skin, all indicators of parasitic activity, so Id check that out first.



Last edited by longhairedgit at 12-Oct-2005 07:31