Dying Carp

[JohnF]

This may mean nothing except that I saw a couple of carp dying. I spent a few hours wading the upper Thames today till about 4 pm. I had to work this morning but I thought it was such a nice day that a walk in the river would be great, with or without fish. Turns out it was without any caught fish but I saw a number of smallmouths in the usual spots, huge schools of suckers gliding around and lots of baitfish so the river looks healthy.

 

One alarming sight was two young carp obviously near death. One swam past me on the river bottom looking pretty scabby and mottled. I'm pretty sure it was the same one that soon came plowing back along the surface obviously in distress. He gave up right in front of me and floated by on his side. His scales were a mess and his eye was all white. Then a half hour later but in the same area I spotted one resting on the bottom. When I got within 10' of him he swam toward me and looked like the first one. He stopped right at my feet. Neither showed any signs of injury and neither was more than 12" long.

 

We occasionally spot dead carp along the river but I've always chalked them up to careless fishermen. I can't remember ever seeing two on the same day in the same stretch of river and not such young ones looking so near death.

 

Perhaps just a coincidence but the other threads about carp die-offs came to mind.

 

JF

[Rich]

Stuff happens. A fish that is primarily a bottom feeder such as carp is likely to pick up pollutants and therefore disease from it's diet. I'd bet all these carp die-offs have a lot to do with gobies, which are like pollutant magnets. Though people seem to think carp are vegetarians - they're not. They'll eat crayfish, worms and yes small fish off bottom. Throw in a goby - a fish that's small enough to fit in their mouth and probably not fast or smart enough to swim away and carp are sure to eat 'em.

[misfish]

I'd bet all these carp die-offs have a lot to do with gobies, which are like pollutant magnets.

 

 

I dont know if I would come to that conclusion Rich. There has been a lot of die off and I dont think the gobies are in all the waters that the die offs are happening. I will tend to agree they do bottom feed,and they can/could, be sucking up toxin,s off the bottom.

[maybe]

According to the OFAH, the only gobies in the tri-lakes are soft plastics. Dead carp were like confetti here last year.

 

Didn't they announce it was koi herpes virus?

[Canuck2fan]

I wonder how or even it it related to the other reports though Lake Simcoe and the Kawarthas are a long way from the Thames? I wouldn't worry though the other day I was on the Thames in about 4 different spots and saw carp all doing what they normally do, no signs of disease. Seriously though a die off wouldn't be a bad thing for the river. You can usually see groups of a 100 plus all over the place. I mean eventually they have to get thinned out somehow. Nature won't allow any species to over populate an area without having something cull the numbers and since carp have nothing in the river that can take them as food once they get over a foot long. Their numbers just keep increasing. Maybe it is just a natural way of slowing them down some since they really have taken over lots of parts of the river around here. Twenty years ago when there was actually some water in the river you might see ten or twenty in a group now you up to a hundred, how can the river support so many? Also being so closely grouped the way they are can't be healthy if any virus sets in.

Edited July 6, 2008 by Canuck2fan

[JohnF]

I'm okay with a natural culling of the herd, but this is the first time I've seen young carp diseased and dying, and two in one day to top it off. If it's just nature's way of leveling off then so be it.

 

I've lived on the Thames since the late 40's, and carp are a pretty natural part of that environment to me. Seems to me the biggest changes in the species in that water are there are more smallmouths and fewer pike in the river above St.Marys. There are lots of rock bass but fewer sunfish than we used to have. Suckers and carp have always been present in large numbers, and generally they don't seem to be present in large numbers in exactly the same areas as the bass these days. I see an occasional carp or sucker in my bass pools when I'm wading, but not the herd we see below the dam in St.Marys. There was a sizable school of suckers in the pool I was in today, but I also saw lots of bass there and it's a big pool, relatively deep for that part of the river.

 

As I said, it may have been just a coincidence that I saw two young dying carp today, and plenty of healthy other fish and huge numbers of bait fish, perhaps even more than usual. I hope there's no carp specific disease making the rounds here, if only for the practical reason that with all the carp we have, it sure will get stinky.

 

JF