Fish ate soft plastic lure.

[wednesday13]

Plastisol is super toxic… best case scenario here is the fish puking it up or passing it. If neither of those happen it will just stay in its stomach until it dies. Will affect appetite as it will always be a bit full. How long it lives like this, time will tell. Being blunt… its just a bluegill and you can get another for free at least. Good news is plenty fish are caught/fileted with a belly full of plastic baits. It may live pretty normal for a long time.

 

[jjohnwm]

wednesday13 , why do you suspect that the thing will just stay in there? I've found the odd plastic lure in a fish's gut from time to time, but always assumed that I happened to have caught it during the brief window of time between ingestion and regurgitation or defecation. If the item were inside for an extended period, I would expect it to be somewhat bleached-out in appearance, but I've never seen that.

I've probably seen more soft plastics being puked up by bass being brought to the boat, than I've actually found inside of fish.

 

[wednesday13]

wednesday13 , why do you suspect that the thing will just stay in there? I've found the odd plastic lure in a fish's gut from time to time, but always assumed that I happened to have caught it during the brief window of time between ingestion and regurgitation or defecation. If the item were inside for an extended period, I would expect it to be somewhat bleached-out in appearance, but I've never seen that.

I've probably seen more soft plastics being puked up by bass being brought to the boat, than I've actually found inside of fish.

Quickly read a bit about it, not much tho… consensus seems to be the baits mostly just end up staying in the stomach if there too large to be passed and too far down the gullet to come back out. Studies showed the biodegradable plastics were not much better for breaking down inside the fish either. I make my own plastic baits… the dyes/pigments are pretty much liquid plastic also. May be why they don’t deteriorate or bleach out either. You can remelt them countless times and they hold up like new.

 

[jjohnwm]

Quickly read a bit about it, not much tho… consensus seems to be the baits mostly just end up staying in the stomach if there too large to be passed and too far down the gullet to come back out. Studies showed the biodegradable plastics were not much better for breaking down inside the fish either. I make my own plastic baits… the dyes/pigments are pretty much liquid plastic also. May be why they don’t deteriorate or bleach out either. You can remelt them countless times and they hold up like new.

Okay, so the condition of the plastic doesn't really count for much; nothing to be learned from that. What little I have read seems to indicate that as long as the object is still in the stomach, as opposed to having already entered the intestine, then it can be regurgitated. Certainly, much of the food that I have seen fish regurgitate when they get close to the boat, or even in the net, has been thoroughly digested and broken down, which I take to mean that it is nearing the end of its time in the stomach and is about as far inside as it can be. Any further down and it is then heading out the other way.

I long ago made a commitment to myself to try and remove such an object if one of my fish swallowed it...but at the same time I made a commitment not to let that happen in the first place! This was after a couple of such accidents, one with a RTC (surprise, surprise...) and the other with my first Jelly Cat, both a long time ago. But both of those cats puked up the things within a day or so along with everything else in their stomachs.

If a dog ingests something dangerous, and if the substance or object is not the sort which will cause additional damage by being regurgitated, my vet has suggested a nice spoonful of Hydrogen peroxide given orally. The dog vomits up everything within a minute or two and is none the worse for wear. This conversation is making me wonder if a fish like the OP's might be coerced into doing the same thing by taking a food item like an earthworm and injecting a shot of peroxide into it before feeding it to the fish?

I think I'd wait at least a day or two to see if it appears naturally.

E Ethansaquarium , can you update here if/when there is a development?

 

[Ansorgii]

If you shoot peroxid into a living thing it explodes. Our bodys are full of enzymes that split it since it occurs naturally from processes within cells.

Maybe look for sth. else to force the throw up

 

[jjohnwm]

Hmmm...I've successfully treated two dogs with the peroxide trick in the past; neither one exploded, and in fact one of them is snoring at my feet as I type this. The other passed away many years ago, at least ten years after the treatment, so I doubt any connection.

But curiosity compelled me, so I just now tried injecting a small frozen/thawed perch with 20cc of peroxide to see what happens. Nothing so far. I'm eyeballing the thing suspiciously right now, but I've already taken off my safety glasses and other PPE.

If you shoot peroxid into a living thing it explodes. Our bodys are full of enzymes that split it since it occurs naturally from processes within cells.

Maybe look for sth. else to force the throw up

 

[Ansorgii]

I meant him injecting it into a worm. That will make the worm burst. Look at this example of a tick. It does not take that high of a concentration to do that, but looks more intense.

 

[jjohnwm]

I meant him injecting it into a worm. That will make the worm burst. Look at this example of a tick. It does not take that high of a concentration to do that, but looks more intense.

That fizzing reaction when you put peroxide on a wound is indeed the chemical reacting with living tissue. That's why typical household peroxide used as a wound disinfectant...or a dog vomin-inducer...is only 3%.

The video says that they are injecting a 30% solution into that tick....just a wee bit different, wouldn't you say?

That perch still looks okay, completely unexploded.

 

[Joshuakahan]

I have about a 5 inch bluegill in a tank full of African cichlids and one of my dumb friends accidently feed it a soft plastic lure and it swallowed it. I'm not sure what to do. Is my fish going to die? Is there a way for me the help it or is it going to be fine? This is one of my favorite fish because of how aggressive it is. I really don't want to lose it.

You might want to accidentally whoop your friends ***
I think the only answer is to wait and see

 

[spotfin]

There have been some studies here in Maine looking at fish (mainly trout) ingesting soft plastic lures. The general outcome is not good, as the trout usually don't pass or regurgitate the plastic. They gradually waste away as the volume of their stomachs is greatly reduced. Hatchery fish seem more prone to ingesting plastics as they are fed pellet food. I work with American eels and have found a few cases where an eel has regurgitated a plastic worm. However, one last year I noticed was extremely thin for it's length so I kept it for science. I found a 2" piece of plastic worm in its stomach, which basically filled the stomach. The eel was slowly starving.
Keep an eye on your bluegill; hopefully it will get rid of the worm. If not, there are options.