Fish Ponds and Frogs

[the millster]

My boyfriend was at a customers house the other day and he noticed that there was a fish in the pond that was crooked, almost bent into a 'C' shape, my mum has a similar kind of deformed creature but in an 'S'. My boyfriend asked his customer what had caused the deformity and was told that it was due to a frog trying to mate with the fish and it had broken the fish's spine. Is this possible as we had believed that our fish had some kind of stroke! The customer seemed adamant that the frog was to blame.

[missmoore]

I remember friends of mine having a similar sounding goldfish - his tail was bent at an angle from his body. We always thought it was a stroke as well... The frog story seems particularly unlikely in my case, as the goldfish had spent all of his life in tanks. Although, perhaps a particularly randy frog hopped in one night without anyone noticing...

[hammerman]

It is not unheard of. During the frogs mating orgy, the males get so horny that if there's not enough females around, they'll grab anything. They usually try to grab another female already taken and sometimes a large female can drown becuse the sheer weight of males on her back prevents her from coming to the surface to breather.

However, there is the odd occasion where a fish is caught....but the fish is usually killed though or badly scarred.

The dformities on the fish above sound like either environmental or genetic issues.....either the pond is too small or crammed full or the fish has some hereditry problem that has caused the curved spine....usually the latter.

[pmjblue]

we have got a deformed golden orfe, did have two, but one died last year - never heard of anyone else having one. It is quite old, as in around 20 years plus, and over 12 inches long - have no idea how long they live for - ours happened when my father put some chemical in to kill the blanket weed, misread the instructions and put in too much, and we put it down to that. But we also have absolutely loads of frogs.....interesting. We have around 30 large fish, but also a large pond around 18ft x 6ft - having problem with the sun turning the water green at the minute though.

[the millster]

pmjblue, do you have a uv filter? There are many available, my step dad is obsessed with them! His water is always perfectly clear.

[foxyflugel]

Also pmjblue - there are certain treatments that you cannot use with Golden Orfe or other certain types of fish - that is probably what killed the fish - not the overdose as it would have affected all of your fish.