fish with 1 red gill

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

Southern Rebel

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 24, 2012
352
0
16
TN,USA
I have a 55gal that has been set up for about 2 weeks. I put in 17 juvi mbuna last tuesday night. 8 Pseudotropheus Saulosi 5 Zebra Long Pelvic Mdoka and 4 Maingano. the smallest maingano has 1 gill that is red, it looks like blood..but its very active and eats fine. I have performed a 20% water change...ammonia 0, nitrite 0, ph 7.8, nitrate 10..tank is cycled (had cycled sponged put into my filters when I put the fish in) is this a bacterial disease perhaps? should I buy aquarium salt and start dosing the tank? Thank You

Edit: filtration is Eheim 2217, and 2 whisper filters 10-30i
 
rhsh36.jpg
 
never mind..I spoke to the person I bought them from and he said that fish has always been like that since birth and it should get better as it grows
 
Southern Rebel said:
I have a 55gal that has been set up for about 2 weeks. I put in 17 juvi mbuna last tuesday night. 8 Pseudotropheus Saulosi 5 Zebra Long Pelvic Mdoka and 4 Maingano. the smallest maingano has 1 gill that is red, it looks like blood..but its very active and eats fine. I have performed a 20% water change...ammonia 0, nitrite 0, ph 7.8, nitrate 10..tank is cycled (had cycled sponged put into my filters when I put the fish in) is this a bacterial disease perhaps? should I buy aquarium salt and start dosing the tank? Thank You

Edit: filtration is Eheim 2217, and 2 whisper filters 10-30i
Click to expand...

One of my fish (gold barb. . .adult, 2.5 inches long) has 1 gill that is very red / missing too. It looks like it would be very painful to the fish, but the fish is very active and eats fine too. It looks like a gaping open sore, bright red (like blood too), and you can see into where the gill used to be. I feel very bad for the fish, as the fish has actually been like this for a whole year now. It looks like it might have got bitten off by one of the other gold barbs in the tank (I just have a 10 gallon freshwater tank with 3 gold barbs only in it), or perhaps the gill got eaten away by bacteria.
I do a 50% water change once a month, and I tried aquarium salt (1 heaping tablespoon per every 5 gallons like the aq. salt directions say) but have noticed no change positive or negative.
I thought it could be "bacterial gill disease" or "open red sores" which can be cured with the antibiotic Erythromycin, but I tried putting in Erythromycin according to the directions, and that did not work. My other fish had "mouth rot" though, and the Erythromycin definitely did cure that.
I think it definitely wouldn't hurt to try Erythromycin (Petsmart sells it for $16, Petco does not sell it), just in case the red gill is caused by bacteria eating it away, but if that doesn't work, maybe the gill was just bitten off by another fish, and it can never grow back. If you or anyone else finds this helpful or not helpful or has any other thoughts on this, please let me know. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Gareth Casady said:
One of my fish (gold barb. . .adult, 2.5 inches long) has 1 gill that is very red / missing too. It looks like it would be very painful to the fish, but the fish is very active and eats fine too. It looks like a gaping open sore, bright red (like blood too), and you can see into where the gill used to be. I feel very bad for the fish, as the fish has actually been like this for a whole year now. It looks like it might have got bitten off by one of the other gold barbs in the tank (I just have a 10 gallon freshwater tank with 3 gold barbs only in it), or perhaps the gill got eaten away by bacteria.
I do a 50% water change once a month, and I put in aquarium salt 2 weeks ago (1 heaping tablespoon per every 5 gallons like the aq. salt directions say) but have noticed no change positive or negative.
I thought it could be "bacterial gill disease" or "open red sores" which can be cured with the antibiotic Erythromycin, but I tried putting in Erythromycin according to the directions, and that did not work. My other fish had "mouth rot" though, and the Erythromycin definitely did cure that.
I think it definitely wouldn't hurt to try Erythromycin (Petsmart sells it for $16, Petco does not sell it), just in case the red gill is caused by bacteria eating it away, but if that doesn't work, maybe the gill was just bitten off by another fish, and it can never grow back. If you or anyone else finds this helpful or not helpful or has any other thoughts on this, please let me know. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Oh. . .I'm just seeing your other post now that your fish was like that since birth. Well, hopefully my advice helps SOMEBODY else out there out!!
 
Gareth Casady said:
ok, thanks. I'm wondering how it went missing though.
Click to expand...

I see. . .the gill plate is also called the operculum. Yes, that is what's missing on one side of my fish, thanks. I guess it must have just gotten bitten off or broken off somehow. Hopefully it wasn't my fault. There seems to be no way to remedy this problem now. Amazingly he seems to still be able to breathe normally enough without this gill plate. I guess I won't worry about it anymore.
 
This is a common birth defect (mutation) in fish.
There is a chance it will fill in with age, but this is unlikely.
Usually if noticed when young, a breeder would cull the fish, but not necessary for you.
It could live a long and healthy life, probably best not to let it breed though, as the trait could be passed onto its progeny.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gareth Casady and Aquanero
duanes said:
This is a common birth defect (mutation) in fish.
There is a chance it will fill in with age, but this is unlikely.
Usually if noticed when young, a breeder would cull the fish, but not necessary for you.
It could live a long and healthy life, probably best not to let it breed though, as the trait could be passed onto its progeny.
Click to expand...

ok, thanks. I was thinking a mutation probably does cause this in a lot of cases, but I'm still not sure if this is really the cause in my case. I bought this fish ~5 years ago from PetCo, and I only remember his gill plate being missing in the past year or so. Maybe the gill plate got weaker because the fish is at the end of his lifespan now and that's why it came off more easily. I don't know. Good to know I don't have to cull my fish. . .he's probably happy he wasn't culled too. He's probably too old to breed now, and I don't own any females anyway, so we don't have to worry that this possible genetic mutation will be passed on to any progeny. Thank you very much for your comments on my post!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom