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Deformed barbel

Gary Wagstaff

Gary Wagstaff

Senior Member
Had this on Friday night on the Ribble body of a 7lb plus fish.used to be 2 barbel deformed on this area had them both over 15 years ago no seen one since
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I had one just like that at Dewhurst Farm, that is also the Ribble for those who do not know. It must have been about 15 years ago , it seemed fit and healthy despite its deformity , it would have been about 5 lbs if memory serves me correctly , it will be somewhere in my diaries no doubt .

Dave
 
I've seen 'kinked' roach and bream before. It used to be said that 'kinked' fish were the result of electro fishing - I don't know it that is true or an Old Wives Tail?
 
David Craine said:
I had one just like that at Dewhurst Farm, that is also the Ribble for those who do not know. It must have been about 15 years ago , it seemed fit and healthy despite its deformity , it would have been about 5 lbs if memory serves me correctly , it will be somewhere in my diaries no doubt .

Dave
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Was 2 when I fished the wigan top Elston area had them both .this was a decent fish that is a 30 inch net.gave a not like barbel fight
 
I have had about half a dozen kinked Barbel over the years and all were low doubles. I always suspected it was an old barbel thing. Possibly caused by older fish getting caught and being a bit fragile/brittle, but who knows exactly. We had a couple both doubles on the stretch of Colne I used to look after. The Colne has to my knowledge has not been electrofished since the early 70s. I did hear species like Orfe can get kinked by electrofishing though.
 
Rob Linwood said:
I’ve had a carp with a twisted weird shape body
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Rob would you say it was S shaped or L shaped? As one of Ray Walton’s thoughts were that the barbel on the Royalty could have been down to spawning behaviour or poor handling? But could only speculate 🧐 but having seen barbel spawning I could well believe it? They really go for it sometimes and must do quite a lot of damage to themselves sometimes?
 
Jim Brook said:
Rob would you say it was S shaped or L shaped? As one of Ray Walton’s thoughts were that the barbel on the Royalty could have been down to spawning behaviour or poor handling? But could only speculate 🧐 but having seen barbel spawning I could well believe it? They really go for it sometimes and must do quite a lot of damage to themselves sometimes?
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Having re read the article in the book, Ray says he believes it could be down to old age, and others had said it could be a virus or down to spawning.
 
It’s a relatively common sight in ornamental fish, particularly Orfe but Carp too. Some suggest low oxygen levels can cause it, age, general spinal injuries and a bacterial infection. There’s multiple suggestions for the cause but realistically I don’t think it’s possible to tell without professional examination, usually post mortem. Unlike a pet your not seeing the development either, you can’t say it happened overnight or over 6 months, which makes it even harder.
 
Stephen Crowhurst said:
It’s a relatively common sight in ornamental fish, particularly Orfe but Carp too. Some suggest low oxygen levels can cause it, age, general spinal injuries and a bacterial infection. There’s multiple suggestions for the cause but realistically I don’t think it’s possible to tell without professional examination, usually post mortem. Unlike a pet your not seeing the development either, you can’t say it happened overnight or over 6 months, which makes it even harder.
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That’s quite interesting, as I’ve only heard of it described in barbel but it would appear to be a commit thing to a lot more other species then?
 
Jim Brook said:
That’s quite interesting, as I’ve only heard of it described in barbel but it would appear to be a commit thing to a lot more other species then?
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In an idle moment I’ve just googled ‘electro fishing and fish deformities’ and first up was a US paper 161 pages long.

There appears to have been plenty of research on the effects of electro fishing on the spine and musculature of fish. There are even x-Ray images trying to differentiate between ‘natural’ injuries and those caused by electro fishing.

Years ago I used to buy rainbow trout to use as pike bait and a fairly high proportion of them had twisted backs that at the time I put down to electro fishing injuries.

Just to confuse you a bit further; I had a big fish from the Thames a while back that looked like 2 different fish joined in the middle. Allegedly the cause was a boat propeller.
 
Very interesting stuff, I guess we’ll never really know though I was wondering if it’s just a birth defect as in humans?
 
I've seen barbel, carp and golden orfe with kinked spines. I'd guess that it's a genetic deformity common to cyprinids. However, I'd also wonder whether fish reaching maturity with such deformities is more likely in farmed fish.
 
Jim Brook said:
That’s quite interesting, as I’ve only heard of it described in barbel but it would appear to be a commit thing to a lot more other species then?
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Very much so. If you think about the complexity of a spine full stop and then the fine elongate construction of the spines of boney fish it’s a clear weak point. There’s some suggestion that low oxygen levels can contribute. Personally I think it’s just the nature of the hard life of a wild animal. I had an Arrowana back about 20 years ago and that’s what finished him off, self inflicted spinal injury.
 
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