Bony bream with two mouths caught at SA's Lake Bonney

Updated

A bony bream with two mouths has turned up in a net at Lake Bonney in South Australia's Riverland.

Garry Warrick said he caught the unusual fish in the lake or one of the creeks adjoining it.

"Both mouths are actually joined together," he said.

"The top one opens and closes but the bottom one looks permanently open.

"Other than that, it looks like a normal fish."

Mr Warrick has worked as a commercial fisherman in the region for 30 years and catches about 100 tonnes of carp and bream each year.

He has caught a few deformed carp in that time, including one fish that had a dolphin-shaped head.

Mr Warrick said most deformities included odd-shaped heads but this was the first time he had come across a bony bream with two mouths.

"I normally pack them for cray bait and fertiliser but this one I put in the freezer," Mr Warrick said.

"I hadn't really told anyone about it other than my wife, and she said you might as well put the photos online."

Mr Warrick said a turtle breeder in Barmera last year bred a turtle with two heads.

"The turtle only survived a few weeks," he said.

The two-mouthed fish was alive when Mr Warrick spotted it in the net.

Topics: environment, marine-biology, biology, community-and-society, rural, fishing-aquaculture, fish, barmera-5345, sa

First posted