Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Fish Scoliosis

I was at my local fish store when my girlfriend pointed out something interesting. A medium sized community fish was swimming very erratically. It appeared to be deformed, and immediately my interest was captured. At first glance it looked injured, but I couldn't find any marks or abrasions on it. All I could see was almost a 90 degree alteration of its spine. After all the observations, I concluded it was diseased, so we went home empty handed.

About two weeks later we made it up to the fish store again, and the same fish was still swimming around the tank. My girlfriend pleaded with me to buy it to help it with its "handicap", so I went ahead and had an employee bag it for me. The store actually ended up giving the fish to me for free because of its defect. My logic was that if the fish had miraculously made it into its young adult age with its "medical problems" then it could obviously handle it's own in my tank.

I brought it back and floated it in the tank. While waiting to release it, I looked up spine deformations in aquarium fish. Apparently, many fishermen notice the abnormality in salmon and tuna fish. It is not harmful to the other fish and is simply a genetic/developmental problem. While I was surfing the web, the girls crowded around the tank and named the fish "Forest Gump." Around campus the "scoliosis fish" has been a big hit with the other students, and people are constantly asking how he is doing.

I will continue to monitor "Forest" and make sure he gets enough food. His trajectory seems to be a bit off; going for a floating flake, he will often miss the target. I have also noticed that he is a bit aggressive towards the other fish. It is understandable considering how long he survived with such an obvious problem.

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