Ever see this before??

[tstooge26]

I caught this fish at Dunbar in the FFO section. I have never seen this type of dis color and the other side of his face was normal. The eye doesn't look right either. Is this caused from a wound?

I was just wondering if anyone seen anything like this before or knows what it is

 

[Fishidiot]

Not sure about the eye, but the dark skin color on the head is pretty common. Usually you see this on large stocked bows and brown trout and it is usually the head that is darker or nearly black.

There's different views on what the cause is but I think it's just an odd melanin anomaly in the skin. I think sometimes a fish will develop this odd color as a result of an injury as it seems prevalent on sickly fish with some form of wound or physical problem, but I don't know for sure.

 

[geebee]

wow - frankenfish - any power station outflows in that area.

how weird. i've never seen or jeard of anything like that !

cool.

 

[JackM]

A freak; a quark.

"According to quantum chromodynamics (QCD), quarks possess a property called color charge. There are three types of color charge, arbitrarily labeled blue, green, and red. Each of them is complemented by an anticolor – antiblue, antigreen, and antired. Every quark carries a color, while every antiquark carries an anticolor."

Talk about lawyer-speak!

 

[huntfish]

probably a recessive trait due to some mutation in the fishes alleles

 

[laszlo]

wasn't Halloween was it?

 

[tstooge26]

Haha yeah he had the mask for sure. I just found it extremely odd that only one side of the face was colored like that. The other side was completely normal

 

[Chaz]

YEs.

 

[fisherboy3]

Ive seen rainbows with one eye and the side of the head was all black, i was told it was that color because the skin was all dead.

 

[djs12354]

I've never encountered something like this. Scary in some ways.

I'm interested in knowing if the color line is/was as sharply defined as it appears in the photo. Almost seems that the fish was laying in something that caused the discoloration/damage.

 

[geebee]

djs12354 wrote:

I'm interested in knowing if the color line is/was as sharply defined as it appears in the photo. Almost seems that the fish was laying in something that caused the discoloration/damage.

my first thought was, i wonder if he had been living in a pipe ouflow or hole in the bank with just his head sticking out - i've seen footage of browns 'backing' into pipes, but not rainbows...

 

[salmonoid]

I spoke with someone recently at Huntsdale that pointed out one of their pet breeders inside the facility that had this sort of coloration. He said the fish had experienced some sort of brain trauma on the lobe opposite the coloration and the skin color had been that way ever since.

I've seen naturally colored fish where one side was noticeably darker than the other; presumably they spent the most recent part of their life hanging out partially under a rock or log. I've also caught fish that had obvious body trauma (heron strike or bird of prey claw) and the area immediately surrounding the trauma had the same dark coloration.

 

[Mike]

One full side will be dark when a trout is blind in one eye, an adaptation that under normal visual circumstances allows them to change color with the perception of their environment (best match the color of their surroundings).

 

[tstooge26]

Thanks for all the input...I definitely never caught one like that before. And yes the color line was really distinct

 

[Midge22]

i seen one yesterday on big spring identical to this.

 

[Night_Stalker]

Last evening, I was out chucking some big streamers and got stuck on the bottom and decided to wade into the deeper water to release the snag. After no action...most likely from spooking the fish...I proceeded to use a 560 lumen flashlight...which easily lights up a big area.

I was done fishing so what the heck, continued to look around. Flash light on and off.

I happened to spot a 13-14" brown that was bright orange/yellow with visible dots...but the front left quarter of the fish was black. I tried to get a photo but the flash below the surface just illuminated the particles / bubbles in the water.

I proceeded and saw a 22-24" hook jaw that was on the bottom. It let me get within 4 feet of it and attempt more photos. Then it disappeared. It was normal colored, which emphasized how odd the earlier fish was.

And no, I do not believe the 560 lumen flash light caused it to be sun burnt...

 

[Chaz]

Blind fish are usually discolored, but the ones I've seen have been discolored on 1 whole side.