Plant Tips, Koi Care, Pond Care

 
Tumor in Koi

Tumors happen in fish just like in other humans and other animals. Most of the time they are cancer.  Some times in females they will become egg impacted and are mistaken for cancer. In a good majority of female fish that become egg impacted they eggs are reabsorbed - but not always.

I thought my female fish below was egg impacted.  But once I did surgery on her I found she was full of cancer inside.

The pictures below are quite graphic and if you have a weak stomach now might be the time to hit the "back" button.
 
Summer of 2003
In the late summer of 2003 I noticed this gorgeous platinum Ogon getting fat.  It was a little late in the season for her to be getting eggs.  This would be the first spawn for this 18 inch year old beauty so I really did not think too much of it to begin with. The picture was taken with my underwater video cam.
 
Late December
tumor 002.jpg (130143 bytes)By late December she continued to grow in size and began to pinecone.  Pine coning is when the scales stand out on the fish thereby looking like a pine cone.

I began to suspect she either was egg impacted or had a tumor.

 tumor 007.jpg (149037 bytes)I used oil of clove for anesthetic, 5 drops per gallon of water, and was prepared to stitch her back up should it turn out she was just egg impacted.

Note the blood in between the scales and the general reddish appearance along with the dissented belly.
 
tumor 010.jpg (141712 bytes)First cut shows yellowish fluid that had filled the abdominal cavity.  I was pretty sure there would be no way to save this beautiful fish now. tumor 011.jpg (142778 bytes)A scalpel was used to make the cut from the pectoral fins back to the anal opening.
 
tumor 014.jpg (148455 bytes)The yellow mass is the tumor.
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This shows that the tumor had encased all the organs in the abdomen, the gall bladder, the liver, and the intestinal track  I realized at this point there was no way to save this fish because removing all the tumor from these vital organs would be very tricky indeed, even for them most experienced surgeons.
 

tumor 018.jpg (154301 bytes)You can see the swim bladder in the empty abdominal cavity.  Note all the loose skin from the very large area the tumor occupied.
 
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