Baby Teeth

[UP ALL NIGHT!!]

Look What I found! My little Jezzy is growing up.

[tranquility]

I have yet to find any...lucky you...I'd love to be able to be able to prove to people that koi really do have teeth....they just look at me like I'm nuts when I tell them they do....
Lawanna

[darion6]

I found some teeth recently as well and showed them to people...they thought it was "freaky" because they look so much like human teeth!

BTW...gorgeous fish! Ai goromo?

[KoiOnline]

Interesting article in one of our newspapers last year. (South Africa)

Extract from the Star Newspaper, Toddlers, Koi and Tooth Fairy all suspects as cops chew over toothy riddle


Alex Eliseev

JOHANNESBURG: It's the riddle of 11 tiny teeth - and police are investigating just how they landed up in the swimming pool filter of a home.

Last week a man walked into the Sandton Police Station with a bag containing what appears to be 11 little white teeth, a police source said yesterday.

In his statement the resident claimed he had discovered the teeth in a newly-installed swimming pool in his sister's Khyber Rock house in Johannesburg.

Before going to the police the man approached a local vet, but was told they did not belong to an animal (such as a dog or cat).

Hearing this, he grew "very concerned".

On Thursday, the man gave the police a statement detailing his strange discovery. The 11 teeth were sealed and placed in the police's SAP 13 safe - as they would be later sent for forensic tests.

Although the case was a bizarre one, and there was no body or crime scene, police opened an inquest and a detective was assigned to the case. It was feared that the milk teeth belonged to a toddler, or several toddlers as they are too small to belong to an adult.

Yesterday investigators once more spoke to the man and were told he had discovered more teeth.

In total about 80 similar teeth were recovered from the swimming pool filter, the source revealed.

The man also told officers that the swimming pool had been built about three weeks ago on top of what used to be a Koi fish pond. The man suggested the teeth belonged to the Koi, and he apologised for wasting the police's time.

There was just one small problem with the man's theory - Koi fish don't have teeth.

Two fish experts were consulted yesterday to confirm that Koi, known as "water pigs", do not hunt and mostly tend to be vegetarian in their diet.

They scavenge in the water for food particles or tiny insects.

Their jaws do have a "rough cartilage" but definitely no teeth.

"It's impossible," the experts agreed. It is, however, unclear whether the teeth could belong to another type of fish.

While they sink their teeth into the mystery, some investigators have a more light-hearted theory on the case and suggest that what has been unearthed is the secret hiding place of the elusive Tooth Fairy.
__________________________________________________ ______________


There were a follow up article in the star confirming that Koi does have teeth:

Something fishy about teeth found in pool

Alex Eliseev

The police investigation into a bizarre discovery of 80 tiny teeth in the swimming pool filter of a Johannesburg home is proving to be a fishy affair.

Officers from the Sandton police station opened an inquest after a man from Khyber Rock, Sandton, brought them a sample of 11 small teeth in a plastic bag.

The homeowner had grown very concerned after consulting a vet and being told they did not belong to an animal such as a cat or dog. A few days after the case was opened, police phoned the man and were told that a koi pond had recently been converted into the swimming pool where the teeth were found. These teeth, the man suspected, belonged to the fish that occupied the koi pond.

Yesterday he told The Star that a rain storm could have somehow brought the teeth up and washed them into the filter.

He said the police had not been back to collect the other teeth - which will now have to go for forensic tests. He was convinced that the teeth belonged to the koi.

"There is nothing to investigate, but I don't mind if they do. Once a case is opened, police are obliged to investigate."

Previously, two koi experts had told The Star that koi do not have teeth. But it appears they did not look deep enough.

According to Caroline Crump, a lecturer and zoological curator of Wits University's life sciences museum, koi do have small, molar-like teeth in the back of their throats. In fact, each fish has 10 and can go through 36 different sets in a lifetime.

Initially police feared that the teeth belonged to a human toddler or several toddlers.

[MikeM]

LOL....great story. Need a koikeeper on their CSI team.