Gill curl diagnosis

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Slippery K

Slippery K

Piranha
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2011
2,491
27
81
Ontario, Canada
I recently noticed something in my armatus that has raised some concerns. During a waterchange yesterday I noticed the right gill plate of my armatus seems slightly raised, the left gill appears normal and unaffected. I read the freshwater disease sticky about gill curl and it says the primary problem is water quality. I testesd my water yesterday aswell before the waterchange and everything showed O as normal, I do 33% waterchanges every 5 days a d iv never had an issue with water quality. Is there any other factors that could contribute to gill curl? Hes a 7" fish in a 120, with 1 tankmate and plenty of current, so I dont think houseing is an issue. His diet isnt the best which im working on, buts hes still too stubborn to eat anything other then talapia and shrimp, I tried stuffing his food with pellets, but just spits them out. Hopfuly soon he will be eating a more varied diet.

Any comments or help would be great. I dont want to see such a expensive and rare fish to die or decrease in value due to something like this. I will try to get some pics, but hes camera shy and still small so a clear pic might take me a bit.
 
is it possible you had a recent spike in parameters? Or too cold of water put in when you did a water change? If not, it could just be a genetic trait and there may not be much you can do about it. Keep the water warm, clean and aerated and hope for the best. On a positive note, it rarely affects the health of the fish.
 
strollo22 said:
is it possible you had a recent spike in parameters? Or too cold of water put in when you did a water change? If not, it could just be a genetic trait and there may not be much you can do about it. Keep the water warm, clean and aerated and hope for the best. On a positive note, it rarely affects the health of the fish.
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The only recent change has been that I cleaned every filter in my house lol I did half of them 2 weeks ago, an d did the other half this week so I didnt kill off the beneficial baxteria, after water tests, no parameter spikes of any kind. When I do waterchanges I always add in water slightly warmer then the tanks to not stress out the fish too much. I have a large airstone that runs all day and I unplug it everynight because its so loud. I have read that it could just be a genetic defect. As far as I know theres 2 other memebers here who have armatus from the same batch mine came from, if it was genetic, wouldnt theirs get it too? I believe we all keep them in similar setups too.
 
is the gill always curled or does it only curl when it breaths? What temperature do you have it in?
 
Tank is set at 80. When looking at him from behind or below, its just the very edge of the gill plate that is starting to curl. Literaly just enough to notice a difference between the gills so not too bad so far. Pics are hard to get because of his size/shyness and its soo minor right now it may not even be visible in a pic. Its just starting so hopfuly I can do something before it gets worse.
 
It's possible for genetics to affect 1 fish and not the others but the only way to "cure" gill curl is clean, warm water. I'd bump the temp to 82 for a couple of weeks and add a quarter dose of salt.


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Slippery K said:
Tank is set at 80. When looking at him from behind or below, its just the very edge of the gill plate that is starting to curl. Literaly just enough to notice a difference between the gills so not too bad so far. Pics are hard to get because of his size/shyness and its soo minor right now it may not even be visible in a pic. Its just starting so hopfuly I can do something before it gets worse.
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Could it of been an injury where something hit against the gill?
 
lix.ma14 said:
Could it of been an injury where something hit against the gill?
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That crossed my mind as he still spazzes at night when the lights shut off. He bumped into the filters/heater a couple times and I even heard some splashing around, so I definitely considered injury, but there does not appear to be physical damage at all. Water params are all at 0, I dont know my exact ph right now, I dont test for it to be honest lol pics I will try again now as im about to feed the armatus, I may need to borrow the wifes dslr tomorrow to get cleaner pics if my camerawont cut it. Ill bump the temp to 82 after feeding, already added some salt last night.
 
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