Gill curl starting.

[classic-chassis]

Over the past week my RTGs soft membrane on its gills has started to flare outward.
Having searched I am presuming it's the start of gill curl.
the water is clean Ammonia 0, Nitrite below 0.3 PH is rather high at 7.5 but I've since treated the water to lower it.
I do 50% water changes are done every 2 weeks, which I'm going to change to 30% every week.
I have changed the direction of the inlet to try and create more current and next Wednesday I'm going to get an additional power head.
My arowana sits on the bottom a lot (it's done this for the last 6 months at least.), and its appetite has not been good for the last few months.
I am presuming its lethargically is the cause of the curl.
apart for the above is there anything else i can do to reverse the problem.
It's still very slight but its gills are defiantly starting to flare out.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Steve_89]

If it was me I would be performing the gill curl operation asap. It is best to catch gill curl in its early stage before the hard part of the gill begins to curl.

It will also heal much nicer if you perform the surgery now.

Increase the water changes...I would crank it to 50% per week and get as much oxygen into the water as possible.

 

[classic-chassis]

I missed that part, i've also got air going in the tank, a sump wet and dry and air going into the sump. I don't think i could put anymore air in the water if i tried.
I don't want to be too hasty with performing surgery, it's only slightly flared and it's only been in the last few days the membrane has started to flare.
There was also a sharp drop in temperature over the past week for a few days and then just a suddenly the temperature has go back up to normal.
Maybe this might have brought it on.

 

[haynboy8]

i had the same problem about a month ago. moved the aro into a bigger tank, added a big air wand, power head, and setup my new ehiem pro 2 filter.

the biggest thing that helped is the power head and the bigger tank(cleaner water).
i suggest getting a cheap 20 dollar power head and mount it where he usually swims. mine was about 4 inches below the water line.

his gill curl has gotten much much better. it aint perfect, but it beats cutting him up. just one tiny spot on his membrane where its not quite right.

 

[classic-chassis]

^ that's what i'm thinking, It's not real bad and at the moment you've got to be looking for it. It's in a big tank already, 60 inches by 30 so it's defiantly not that.
I will get a power head in there on Wednesday.
Does salt help?

 

[ctoychik]

Sorry to hear about potential gill curl - yikes. I recon you can add salt. It is supposed to be a tonic. If it helps, i use salt regularly in my glass aquariums.

 

[Kenta]

I reverse gill curl in its early stages by doing daily water changes and adding more filtration... I added an established XP3 to a 150g where a 9" lived and the curl was reversed within a few days

GL, and catch it before it gets irreversible!

 

[Freke]

My first gill curl prob that i got was on a RTG and i did cut it off, but my last was on my new SR and i did just change water often and add one power head and after 1 month he was back to normal and he had serius gillcurl think he got it from the bad water in during shipping here from asia. But hes happy and u cant tell he had it by looking at him now.

 

[classic-chassis]

the only thing i did differently was to clean my tank in the morning rather than the afternoon last week. The new water is aged and treated outside my house for a couple of days before.
As i said earlier there has been a cold spell, the new water may have been too cold due to it being the morning and not having time to warm up sufficiently.
at the moment it's only the soft membrane which is flared, hopefully it won't get worse in between now and Wednesday.
If i can afford it i might get a canister as well as a power head.

 

[xdragonxb0i]

any pictures? i would like to see the begging stages of gill curl