"Scalpel, Please" or "The Case of the Constipated Fish"

I stopped in at the Ocean Institute this morning to catch up with my fellow animal husbandry volunteers, clean a tank, and assist with a necropsy. A Pacific Mackerel in the schooling tank had been swimming upside down for a week, so he was gently euthanized and put out of his misery. Another volunteer, Allyson, researched possible maladies and concluded that the fish might have been constipated. Constipation puts pressure on the swim bladder, which causes the fish to swim upside down. Our boss disagreed. She said the condition likely was neurological. Allyson expertly performed the necropsy to confirm the diagnosis. She made a clean horizontal incision running from the gills to the tail and then identified and removed each of the major organs. (Did I mention Allyson is in high school? Scrubbing tanks and being intellectually outmatched by high school kids will keep you humble.) The organs looked healthy, which supports our boss's theory. Chief aquarist, 1. Volunteers, 0.