left gill flap not closing

[haynboy8]

I dont know what happened but i just notice my 20 inch aro's left gill flap isnt closing all the way. the right side is fine. it also looks like its breathing harder/faster through the left gill. when it opens you can basically see the red gills on the inside cause it opens so far compared to the right. is this infant stages of gill curl?

I do water changes once a week. but now i guess i should do it every 2-3 days till this thing subsides.


need some help to see whats up. or maybe it hit himself by jumping?

 

[haynboy8]

sorry for the bad pics but i suck at takin pics of fishes.

 

[TheFishWrestler]

Looks like gill curl. Increase your water changes and add some powerheads. What size tank is it in?

 

[zerojquan85]

he must have bumped into something... causing the gill plate to not close all the way... if its just happening a few days ago...

It could be the tank size.... too narrow causing the gill plate to not close up... U could fix it manually... requires u to touch the fish... but.. i think its better for it to be in a bigger tank.. Gill curl is caused by narrow tank size...

 

[Bderick67]

IMO that is not gill curl, others may say different. The gill plate is concave and has flipped kinda inside out, Ive had this happen twice with one of my large silvers. It went back to normal after a couple days. Depending on how much your aro allows you to touch it you may be able to flip it yourself.

One way to confirm gill curl or not would be to show pics of the gill on the opposite side.

 

[haynboy8]

yea its in a narrow tank. i have my bigger tank but i dont have anywhere to set it up yet. so i gotta act quickly.

i read that thread where the guy msassaged the gills so i tried massaging his gill and that seemed to help. but 10 min later it reverts back.

right now i just have to wait till i get some help to set up the other tank. i gotta wait till people get off work.

 

[haynboy8]

oh also would i have to operate on this guy or do you think when i get it moved into a bigger tank, it will return to normal?

 

[Quen]

Pic 4.. other side also seems to be sticking out a bit too.
Hows the water? What size is the tank?

 

[King-eL]

IMO that is not gill curl, others may say different. The gill plate is concave and has flipped kinda inside out, Ive had this happen twice with one of my large silvers. It went back to normal after a couple days. Depending on how much your aro allows you to touch it you may be able to flip it yourself.

One way to confirm gill curl or not would be to show pics of the gill on the opposite side.

That's an early sign of the development of a gill curl on aros. Some have it on both side and some have it just on one side. One of the causes of gill curl are bacterial infection and also if aro is keep in a narrow tank and turn mostly on just it's left or right side. It forces the gill to curl.

If the curl is only on at gill membrane, there is chance that it can be fix by cutting off the gill membrane. But if goes to at gill plate, there is less chance that it will go back to normal.

This happened in many asian arowanas that are being keep in a small tank.

 

[tdkee1]

i agree with Bderick67 on this one.