Filefish - Tassled Chaetoderma pencilligera

[Johnny Reefer]

Notice the stomach is green.


The stomach punctured.

[christyf5]

Thats not the stomach, its the gallbladder The stomach is attached to the loop of intestine that is directly below it. Not really knowing about the internal workings of this fish its possible that it has something in its stomach that was backing things up. The gallbladder does look slightly larger than it should be. The first photo of your fish with the vent (anus)protruding is a good indicator that something is up, was it like that in life as well as death? The liver also looks pretty pale. Sorry I wasn't closer and I'd take some samples and have a look see whats up.

So sorry to hear about your fish, he was truly magnificent

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Thats not the stomach, its the gallbladder

Oh, . At the risk of revealing that I am somewhat of an amateur at necropsies....the book I have at home on fish anatomy is not so comprehensive as to even make mention of the gall bladder at all. Given that it's content was green, and it is roughly the same size and postion as the diagram in the book, I just assumed it was the stomach. I found online that the gall bladder is actually quite small and will become distended due to lack of eating. The fish stopped eating some time ago, so that explains that. Any ideas on how the contents would become green?

Originally Posted by christyf5

.... The first photo of your fish with the vent (anus)protruding is a good indicator that something is up, was it like that in life as well as death? ....

Not exactly. The protrusion had receded while it was still alive, but it looked like intenstines? were showing at the opening. Kinda like a baby's head at birth, if I can use that analogy with some forgiveness .

[christyf5]

Heh no problem Mark, you're right though, the gallbladder is usually one of those organs that is passed over because its usually small and unnoticeable. The reason it is green is because it is full of bile, which is used to break down food enzymatically. Ever had a really rough night vomiting? Eventually you get to the really foul tasting yellow stuff, thats bile.

Anyway, yeah I'd say judging from the look of that intestine, see how that loop I pointed out is kind of transparent? It shouldn't be, which indicates that the fish hasn't been eating in some time. It can be pretty hard to judge what the cause of that was, it could very well be constipation or a myriad of other things including a bacterial infection.

Ok so what you've said about the anus protruding a bit, I'd definitely vote bacterial infection. Once an infection takes hold there is usually some ascites (fluid buildup) in the abdominal cavity, which can cause the intestines to bulge out and well, they sometimes find that opening.