Fish Diagnosis help

[Gretchen17]

I noticed this fish just sitting at the bottom of the pond not moving, then noticed this giant "something" protruding out of its side and gill area. The next day it was dead. My first reaction was that it might have gotten caught in a small pump on the pond bottom and gotten its flesh caught. But when I looked closer it looks like some kind of giant worms or parasite rather than the normal insides of a fish. Now I'm concerned about the other fish in the pond and whether it's something they could catch. I'm not sure if I need to treat the water as a preventive. I'm still a novice with pond issues. Has anyone seen anything like this before or have any advice? Thank you.

 

[Tula]

I can't tell from this picture, if there is something on the fish, or it's part of it's decomposition. They're too big for an anchor worm, maybe leeches?

Welcome to the forum and sorry for the loss of your fish.

 

[MitchM]

Take the fish and have a closer inspection as to what it is on the side of the fish.
It looks like it could be it's intestines.
Could the fish have gotten squished between a couple of rocks or some other mechanical injury?

 

[Smaug]

Looks like guts to me. I've seen that before with fish that got caught against an intake.

 

[Mmathis]

Sorry about your fish! It looks like intestines/other internal organs.... If this was a sudden thing, I would suspect an injury. If you thought you saw worms, etc., that could be due to the length of time the fish was injured (dead) before you examined it. Do you check your water parameters for ammonia, pH, etc., and what are the readings?

 

[Gretchen17]

It was alive and swimming around the day before it looked like this and was still at the bottom of the pond. The photo was taken the next morning. Several people who replied thought it looked more like intestines, which does make sense since it was so sudden (hard to look closer because hubby threw it in the woods after he took the photo!). More info today makes me believe it was probably injured by a heron or other animal...because today I noticed that one of my large koi is gone out of the pond (I only had 6 fish - now down to 4), and also today none of the remaining fish would come out from under the rock hiding place I built for them when I fed them. My guess is that instead of parasite treatment, I will need to work on predator control. Thanks everyone!

 

[Tula]

Awwww, I'm sorry. You're right to focus on a deterrent, as herons are tenacious

 

[Meyer Jordan]

If you are near woods you can't rule out raccoons.