i know what u mean a red tailed cat i have has it and its hard to tell if it geting better or not
Gill curl help please
- Thread starter rumblesushi
- Start date
I've never seen water condition heal a gill curl, whether the gill curl is outward, or inward. I snipped the gill plate of my ATF who had a gill curl inward,without sedating the fish. I just made sure this fish is healthy. It was quick, but make sure you don't snip too far, or snip too short. In order to calm a fish, just turn it upside down, being the belly pointing upwards, and this would calm the fish. It only took about 10 seconds to snip the gill curl. The gill plate grew back without the curl. Don't use a wet towel to handle the fish, the slime coating would come off. If all possible, use your hands.
i use transmore to calm my african pike down, sharp scissor is compulsory, i handle with a wet cloth,snip off the curl part, release it into the quaratine tank with full aeration and salt and moniter before back into main tank, but it didnt heal well, maybe a second trim after 6mths.
Surgical gloves, non-latex work well handling fish.
I have never dealt with a fish with gill curl
thanks for the info Vince - coudl you tell me what you put the fish on to snip it? Surely it has to be resting on something rather than just in your hand? 
a lot of folks drop the sedated fish on a wet towel , and use surgical scissors to carefully
snip away the soft gill plate . Do not cut off the hard plate because that doest grow back
Do an operation if you want to but if not, the fish is not in danger of anything by having gill curl.
snip away the soft gill plate . Do not cut off the hard plate because that doest grow back
Do an operation if you want to but if not, the fish is not in danger of anything by having gill curl.
As a matter of fact, the fish is in the net, and I handled the fish with my bare hands, but very gently, because if the grip is firm, the fish would panic. So it is very gently. I learned this handling through fishing, when I have to catch the bait gently with one hand, and turned it upside down to calm it and place the hook through it's jaw going up the nose. In this case, gentle handling, and a quick snip of the curl, and the fish back into the tank as quickly as possible. Didn't even phase the fish, but the fish is a good 10 inches...so it may also matter how big that fish is. I would let it get healthy before any type of stressful "surgery".thanks for the info Vince - coudl you tell me what you put the fish on to snip it? Surely it has to be resting on something rather than just in your hand?
agreed with d advice, trimming will be the last resort, remember that a 10 incher is quite hard to handle when not sedated.
thanks again people, I'm not sure what to do then.
The fish is say, almost 6 inches including the tail, and beefy.
He's a healthy, friendly, confident fish - the gill curl doesn't seem to bother him at all.
The main reason I was thinking about surgery is because I thought it may affect his health not because it looks horrible etc. I did a google search on gill curl, and someone had mentioned on another forum that fish can die from gill curl, they can't breathe properly etc.
Is that BS?
The fish is say, almost 6 inches including the tail, and beefy.
He's a healthy, friendly, confident fish - the gill curl doesn't seem to bother him at all.
The main reason I was thinking about surgery is because I thought it may affect his health not because it looks horrible etc. I did a google search on gill curl, and someone had mentioned on another forum that fish can die from gill curl, they can't breathe properly etc.
Is that BS?
gill curl is usually cause by poor water parameter or kept long term in a space constrain tank , just maintain good water parameter and frequent water changes,moniter the gills(soft part) ,the worst stages will be the gill plate(hard part) hardening which my A.pike developed. fish dont die from gill curling , probably from bad water parameters.
