How do fish catch gill infections

[RobD23]

I just lost my most prized fish a 7'' fahaka puffer that i grew from 1'' and it was to what looked like a gill infection, the gills swelled and the puffers skin was pealing can any one tell me what the heck was wrong with him. Now all i have left is my wolves and if they die i'm never buying another fish as long as i live!!!!

 

[guppy]

There are several things that cause gill infections including ick and bacterial infections, chlorine, zinc, and ammonia can burn gill tissue and that leads to bacterial infections, the same thing can happen if you drastically lower the salinity in a brackish tank suddenly. Swollen gills and peeling skin happening quickly sounds like either a salinity change or a chemical irritant, did this happen shortly after a water change? If so did you remember to dechlor the water?

 

[RobD23]

There are several things that cause gill infections including ick and bacterial infections, chlorine, zinc, and ammonia can burn gill tissue and that leads to bacterial infections, the same thing can happen if you drastically lower the salinity in a brackish tank suddenly. Swollen gills and peeling skin happening quickly sounds like either a salinity change or a chemical irritant, did this happen shortly after a water change? If so did you remember to dechlor the water?

my friend told me about this salt that helps fish so i used it on my tank, shortly after my puffer dies... and i've been battling to get rid of ick in both of my tanks and i think my rainbow wolf still has it...no meds are working i'm going crazy!

 

[guppy]

The salinity change that causes gill to swell is a sudden drop in salt content, usually someone forgets to premix a waterchange for brackish fish, The salt treatment for ick is 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon of water at 85 degrees for at least 10 days, ich parasites often attack gill tissuue causing swelling, and sometimes other infections.
I once killed an entire tank of mixes tetras because I did a 50% water change using city water and no dechlor, some died that night, some the next day, the ones that lived the longest had pale swollen gill tissue showing past the gill covers and what looked like skin sloughing off.
The only other thing I can think of that is salt related is that other than canning salt and aquarium salt many common granulated salts contain chemicals to prevent clumping. Adding salt to a tank doesn't cause the tissue to swell even as an overdose, the tissue gets a shriveled look and the eyes get cloudy.

 

[RobD23]

Well then i really don't understand the problem because the tank my fahaka puffer was in was completely clean and i have no idea what could have possibly cause his death and the death of my tiger catfish. The strange thing is not only did my puffer have swollen gills but it also was peeling...I can't figure it out, i tried to get rid of the ick numbers of times with super ick, and that salt stuff nothing seems to work

 

[guppy]

No other tanks were affected? It sounds like a toxin like zinc but that would effect any other tank using the contaminated water. For the ich all I can suggest is try some different formulations like Ichguard or Maracite, there are a couple very resistant srains out there.