Heres some pics, not the best, little guy kept moving everytime the camera was about to fucus lol best I can do for now. Should be enough shots to clearly see what im talking about. I dont know how this happend, and its bugging me lol
Gill curl diagnosis
- Thread starter Slippery K
- Start date
Im positive its a recent thing. In the time iv had this fish iv spent a good chunck of time just looking at him and admiring this fish lol if it is diet releated I hope to have him on a more varied diet once he starts accepting different foods. Right now he just eats talapia and frozen shrimp from the grocery stores. Im trying to stuff his food with hikari carnivore pellets, but its like hes aware I did something to the food and wont touch it yet. Hopfuly soon ill have him eating stuffed talapia and shrimp.
Idk, Im just trying to throw some possibilities out there, aside from the gill, nice fish.
There is a book that was written before the internet about fish care. One photo shows the effects on the gills of fish when you feed food that has sat on the shelf too long and the vitamin C has vanished. The gills and gill covers curl and shrink. The next photo shows the same fish in recovery after the same old food was used but was soaked in liquid vitamin C before each feeding. In a short time there is a huge amount of new gill cover regrowth. Fish can not create vitamin C in their bodies like mammal predators They MUST get it from their food even if they only eat other fish. Which is why gut loading is so important. I have that book and will start looking for it when I get some daylight in here. I have always soaked my fish foods in vitamin C, even if my foods are brand new(about once a week). Probably because of the hideous photos from that old book. I was an angelfish breeder for a few years and never had a single gill defect in any of my fry even when inbreeding. I got that last bottle at "the Vitamin Shoppe". I also bought a brown glass bottle and dropper to store small amounts in so I could keep the main bottle in the 'fridge. Don't be too quick to discount this advice. I think you will be surprised at the efficacy of "old fashioned" advice from "old people"! (At the very least, it can't hurt) (L-absorbal-2-polyphosphate is the more stable form of Vitamin C and should be your first choice but ascorbic acid is more likely to be commonly available in a liquid) (forgive my spelling of the vitamin forms, spell corrector does not know those words!)
Well iv always soaked my morays food in a vitamin garlic liquid, maybe I should try that for the armatus.
The red is just his gills showing, I had to mess around with some settings on my camera to get a decent shot, he was at the bacxk of the tank, facing the wall lol
id also go with the nutrient deficiency. i took fish and wildlife technician in college and we did studies on fish in different rivers/lakes. the only time i saw gill defects was either close to farm land where pesticides have been used or in the winter time when food is limited. the rainbow trout we caught had it so bad that there was no gill cover left all you could see was the bright red gill filaments. the trout had sunken stomachs from having nothing to eat. and the fry that we found all had it on both sides. the larger ones had it one side much worse then the other.
i feel your pain when it comes to switching the food your fish take. my 3 gatf r an absolute headache right now. i feel bad starving them but ive finally got the middle sized one to constantly eat carnistix. the big one hasnt eaten for at least 2 weeks. but he has just recently started biting and spitting out the pellets which i figure is a start. the smallest one hasnt eaten but hes still fairly new. today i thought he was going to try one but turned away last second. id highly recommend the garlic because it stimulates their hunger. i always add a bit of garlic to my beef heart/shrimp mix that i give to my brackish tank.
i feel your pain when it comes to switching the food your fish take. my 3 gatf r an absolute headache right now. i feel bad starving them but ive finally got the middle sized one to constantly eat carnistix. the big one hasnt eaten for at least 2 weeks. but he has just recently started biting and spitting out the pellets which i figure is a start. the smallest one hasnt eaten but hes still fairly new. today i thought he was going to try one but turned away last second. id highly recommend the garlic because it stimulates their hunger. i always add a bit of garlic to my beef heart/shrimp mix that i give to my brackish tank.
