Is he active? If you just fed recently he likely won't be. If it's been more than six hours he should be moving around a bit. Is your return from the canister fully submerged, or slightly out of the water to break the surface? That creates a gas exchange that should be sufficient but it can be noisy. Adjust the return or add some air and just keep an eye on him. Is there anything else in the tank with him? I only ask because when an RTC passes they skunk the tank almost immediately.
RTC gill color?
- Thread starter Texasrockwell
- Start date
I have a RTC/TSN hybrid and a marble cat in the same tank. The other fish are fine and I think my set up is fine, I am sure its was from the LFS. He was there at least 2 month before I finally got him. The lady that owns the store even tried to tell me the gill curl was normal, when I was haggling over the price. I will add some extra air stones tonight. He is very active when the lights go out, so hopefully he will recover. I also took a temp reading on my outside 3500 gallon tank and it was 74 degrees today, do you guys think it would help to move him into that set up?
74 is like scraping bottom of OK. People have said 72+ for RTCs but I have always stuck with 75+ and kept my water at 78. He should be OK but just be mindful of any weather changes that will bring the water temp down. Rain can cool a body of water super quick. As always remember that he will eat anything that fits in his mouth so if you have any small koi or mosquito fish etc. they may slowly disappear. Make sure to acclimate him before you just drop him in the pond. Acclimate as you would when you bring fish home from the LFS. Gill curl is not normal and it's an easy way to test someone. I've heard of people trimming the excess gill flap but I would never attempt it or allow someone to do so. I have however seen a small one about the size of yours have the curl recede with great care. Not disappear but be much less apparent. Hoping for the best!
So do you thing the pond would be best option? I could wait a couple of days, water temp has gone up 10 degrees since last week (Texas is getting into the 90's already).
10-4 on the gill curl, he is pretty young still I am hoping he will grow out of it.
I think that might be best. I will get him in there in the morning. I have a descent set up on the pond, even have a cooler if it gets too hot, but i have two waterfalls and a koi drain with huge air diffuser that should keep it below 80.
Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.
I will try to keep the post updated and let everyone one if the little guy makes it and hopefully turns into a huge guy.
I don't know if its worth dosing main tank but this fish could benefit from a methylene blue treatment but probably not worth the stress of moving to hospital tank. Maybe just increase oxygen level in main tank and hope for the best.
Do you think that will help? As I understand, its not any kind of fungal infection, so I wonder if that would help. I have some and will try it if it would help.
