Cases of anomalies in the goldfish Carassius auratus collected from the southern marshes of Iraq

Six morphological deformities were observed and examined in 6 specimens of the goldfish Carassius auratus collected from the southern marshes of Iraq, Basrah. These anomalies include: eye abnormalities (exophthalmos and enophthalmos), mouth deformity (dextral twisted mouth), ankylosis (fusion of vertebrae), lordosis (ventral curvature), pudgheadness (deformation of the front head bones) and scoliosis (lateral curvature). All cases were not fatal as they occurred in adult individuals. The paper discusses the possible causes for such deformities as well as the suitability of this kind of study for environmental monitoring.