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Red gills on fish, what should I do?


Demobanana
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Here's some context.

Around 3 weeks ago I added a platy in one of my (kinda) new planted tank. And when I say kinda, I mean the tank has been running since last July but I had yet to add any fish in there. Family emergency had me on leave for 3 days. I did a water change a day or 2 before, and I figured if he really got hungry he could've eaten any of the algae I have. I come back, and the platy is pretty motionless with red gills. So I test the water, and everything is good, and the nitrates are around 30ppm, which was about my normal ppm (I had some plants that could benefit off it) and do a water change anyways. So maybe my test was broken, so I took it to the LFS and got it tested, which they said it was fine and offered to exchange it. So I did. After the first couple days I started immediately seeing the same symptoms and water changed every other day. He seemed a little better but still had the red gills.  Everything was 0 except nitrates, which were around 10 ppm. Couple days ago I added a small group of pygmy cories. They seem fine as I type this but they also had the red gills the next morning, much like the 2 platys before. Nitrates are still 10 ppm....and there's an HOB and sponge filter getting air in there. And as far as I know, red gills are a sign of parasite, lack of O2, or ammonia burn. But the only thing left are parasites, and I oddon't think they can develop them in less than a day, seeing as they looked fine in the store and the bag. What should I do?

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On 1/20/2022 at 7:28 PM, lefty o said:

ammonia or chlorine are my first 2 things to look for with red gills.

just checked ammonia w/ the API Master kit just in case, still 0. And the dechlorinator I've been using for some time is the API conditioner that says 1 ml/20 gal (the tank in question is a 20 g) is for chlorine and heavy metals, and it says 5ml/30 g.... now that I think about it my city might be using chloramines and I usually only put about 2 ml in. Do you think I should just drop some in right now or water change and then add it in?

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i myself would not rush into a water change, as if the water source is the issue you will just be putting in a fresh case.  another partial dose of dechlorinator might not be a bad idea, just to be safe. do the fish look stressed, gasping for air, etc?

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On 1/20/2022 at 9:18 PM, lefty o said:

i myself would not rush into a water change, as if the water source is the issue you will just be putting in a fresh case.  another partial dose of dechlorinator might not be a bad idea, just to be safe. do the fish look stressed, gasping for air, etc?

ever since I added the pygmy cories a couple days ago the platy's been acting a little erratic...he even tried to bite one on its way down from the bag. That might be because I'm kinda cautious of feeding too much (he's strangely fat now too). Other than that the platy doesn't go up too much and the cories seem to be just surfing up and down the glass. The platy is the only one acting kind of strange, now half the time he darts away when I approach the tank, something he really wasn't doing for the first 2 weeks (besides the first couple of days). And yeah just to be safe I put a couple of mml of dechlor in there.

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