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How do you deal with growths?

S

Stephen Goderski

Senior Member
I caught a fish yesterday which, although it was superbly conditioned (and almost as fat as me), had a walnut sized growth in the corner of its mouth.

I deliberated as to whether I should try to remove it and concluded that as the fish was so healthy looking (apart from the growth!) and had fought so well, it obviously wasn't overly inconvenienced by it.

If the fish had been emaciated or sickly looking I would probably have tried some surgery.

My question is what do you tend to do if you come across such a growth? Remove it or leave it? If the former, what works for you - a small scalpel and some Klinik?

I would be very interested in your views, especially anybody that has removed a growth and subsequently seen the fish in question recaptured.

Best wishes, Steve
 
I have to agree with Julian Steve, Surgical removal seems a bit over the top to me.
The 'growth may be just scar tissue, or a benign or maligant growth, either of the latter, unless all the cancerous cells were removed it would only come back, and possibly faster and more aggresively.
Madness to even attempt it IMO :(


Ian.
 
Hi Stephen, coincidentally, i caught a Barbel last week, which had a similar growth in its mouth. I did feel sorry for it and deliberated the same as whether to remove it or not, for a nano second. It also was in top condition and i released it back to the river as i received it. It would be worth knowing if it was life threatening to the fish?

Jon
 
Thanks for the replies chaps (and nice to see so many fellow Loddonites posting).

We have all reached the same conclusion, which is nice, but if the fish looked ill or if it appeared that feeding might be impaired I would probably reach the opposite conclusion on the basis that the fish might have nothing to lose.

I am still curious as to any practical experience of growth removal although I do agree that this should probably only be attempted as a last resort.

Thanks again for the replies lads and hope you are all having a good season.

Best wishes, Steve
 
Hi Stephen...If you took a picture of the fish/growth, can you put it up here please if you can. There are many types of growths as Ian says and some blood supplied.
Some can put the fish 'at risk' depending on the positioning and this might be one....Many Thanks...ray
 
Hi Ray,

I'm afraid I didn't take a picture. I did at the time think of your collection of photographs of deformities of Royalty barbel but decided I did not want to start my own....

The growth was walnut sized and round. It looked like a ball of spaghetti if that is of any use?

When you say "some are blood supplied" I assume that you mean that there is a risk of excessive blood loss if there is an attempt to remove them and that this is therefore not to be encouraged?

This brings me back to my original point about practical experience of removal - ie do the fish tend to survive?

I should reiterate that the fish in question was otherwise absolutely pristine and clearly had no problem feeding so removal was never a serious option; I am merely curious as to what my options are in the event that I catch a sickly one with such a growth.

Best wishes, Steve
 
I use to catch one on a local stretch to me.

I caught this fish between 8 and 9 1/2 lbs over a 1/2 mile stretch, covering 3-4 years.

It had a large (golf ball) sized lump on its bottom lip, and to be honest it use to amaze me that it could get a bait in its mouth.
It was always in good condition (apart from the lump) and always gave a good account of its self.

I never ever thought about removing this lump.

Steve
 
Let nature takes it's cause. If it's meant to die then it should, perhaps a calous attitude but it's not for us to interfere in my opinion.
 
This is a growth from a TT (Tidal Trent) Barbel i caught the other day. One other thing to notice is, the wear and tear on this Barbels lips and barbules. Looks to me as its been feeding very hard.
 

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Growth removal

Not meaning to go against the grain but I have had two situations where I have dealt with a growth and subsequently re-captured the same fish and it's been OK.
I didn't cut them off though, for the reasons that Ray has already said (they could bleed a lot if cut). Instead I tied them off with very fine braid, a bit like people do with warts. All I can say is that both the fish were fine and I assume that the growths fell off with no blood supply to them.

One lump was like the one in the picture, the other slightly smaller, but both of mine were on the inside of the bottom lip.

Don't do anything if you are not sure and certainly don't ass about with a fish out of the water especially in the summer months.

Stuart
 
I landed a Barbel for my mate last Thursday and it looked lije its gills were hanging oput. When we had it on the mat we noticed that it was a large growth, the size of a bear mat & the colour of luncheon meat, flapping about from its gill cover. The fish fought hard and didnt look out of sorts and was put back asap.

Ive never seen anything like it before, I dont think there could have been anything we could have done even if we wanted to..... Best to leave alone and let nature take its course.
 
I caught a carp a few seasons back with a growth on its back the size of a tennis ball. Assumed it would die frankly but it was caught the other week looking the same, pretty rough, but still going strong.

Guess fish are just the same as us, we can't all be David beckham..
 
is it possible that these mouth 'growths' could be some kind of reaction to bad unhooking from the fish being caught in the past, or is because they've eaten (or mouthed) some kind of stinging type grub that may be in our waters perhaps.
i've caught lots of alcerated fish over the years but never seen this type of growth on a mouth before.
 
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Stu Morgan said:
Not meaning to go against the grain but I have had two situations where I have dealt with a growth and subsequently re-captured the same fish and it's been OK.
I didn't cut them off though, for the reasons that Ray has already said (they could bleed a lot if cut). Instead I tied them off with very fine braid, a bit like people do with warts. All I can say is that both the fish were fine and I assume that the growths fell off with no blood supply to them.

One lump was like the one in the picture, the other slightly smaller, but both of mine were on the inside of the bottom lip.

Don't do anything if you are not sure and certainly don't ass about with a fish out of the water especially in the summer months.

Stuart
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What Stu say's about tying them off is probably the correct/best way of doing this as it will stop the blood supply to the growth/tumor.
The growth should then be starved of blood, shrivel up and reduce in size, to where it may/will change colour and eventually drop off.
The mouth and gill areas are the most critical points where growths/tumors can affect feeding and breathing etc and this can put the fish’s life at a high risk.
The growths can be small at first but some do advance to grow larger (also with the increasing size of the fish) and some expand to take up more area. Others do drop off naturally after a time but not all.
Generally, the basic antiseptic treatments like Klinik etc have no effect on reducing the size or healing of growths/tumors.

Neil...I would say that some of the mouth growths are due to 'hook point/barb breaking off and is left 'embedded' in the lip or mouth flesh to where the fish cannot remove it itself. This can be unnoticed by the angler at the time.
Here, irritation is caused and metal corrosion can begin to take place after a while. New flesh tries to cover and heal over the embedded hook metal, similar to getting a wood splinter, metal filing, bramble or rose thorn in your finger or bum and it cannot be easily removed.
The probable cause is metal fatigue or fault in manufacture of the hook.
I have seen and experienced this in the 1980’s with generally small hooks, to where a whole batch sold by the tackle shop were all found to have the same fault.
Although few fish showed signs of larger mouth growths, a lot of others did show ulcerated mouth wounds which did not appear to heal naturally as one would expect. ...Ray
 
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Agree with Ray. Over the years I've found two dead fish with growths on the bottom lip. In both cases when cutting them open there has been a tiny corroded hook inside. This, of course, may not apply to all cases of growths but can be an indication of a foreign object in the flesh. I suppose one could liken it to a pearl where an oyster builds up a cacium [?] layer to protect itself from the irritation of a piece of grit.

Mike
 
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