Gill health - Black skirted Tetra

[Milliardo Peacecraft]

I was wondering if anyone knows what might be up with one of my black skirted tetras.  Tonight I noticed that his right gill appears to be quite red and a bit swelled up.  He's ate quite well tonight and seems rather hyper, but he does seem to want to rub that gill on things in the aquarium, like he'll bolt into the Java Fern, rock onto his side and slide that gill along the leaf.  Hopefully the pictures show it well enough.  If they don't I'll get my real SLR camera out get a better shot tomorrow.  The red is more distinct and the gill seems swelled out slightly that my phone just can't do reality justice.  Any suggestions as to what may help.  My water parameters are below.

75 gallon aquarium, Nitrate: 10 ppm, Nitrite: 0 ppm, GH: 150-300, KH: 180-300, chlorine: 0 ppm, pH 8.4 (I ran out of pH down last night, need to buy more).  Typically I try to run 7.5 to 8.0 pH.

[Colu]

What's your ammonia is it eating ok any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface @Milliardo Peacecraft

[Milliardo Peacecraft]

@Colu the ammonia is <0.02 ppm he has been swimming around mid level in the tank.  No rapid breathing/not rapidly moving his gills. He's been a little more aggressive lately chasing other fish around a bit more, even though he's one of the smaller tetras in the tank.

[jwcarlson]

If it's possible that you just haven't noticed before, it could be genetic.  Short gill plates are an issue in certain species, though I'm sure it happens outside of those as well.  Ammonia as noted above can cause an issue like inflammation.  But I think ammonia during growth can cause lasting effects as well.

[Colu]

Ammonia can cause Gill damage is it possible you had a spike and got higher than 0.02 if not it could be bacterial infection of the Gill's I would quarantine and treat with kanaplex  and add an extra air stone during treatment @Milliardo Peacecraft

Edited December 14, 2023 by Colu

[Milliardo Peacecraft]

@Colu I'm not finilar with kanaplex.  Is that similar to Maracyn and would Maracyn work as well?

[Colu]

Kanaplex is a more broad spectrum antibiotic treatment you can use maracyn or maracyn2 which ever you have to hand 

[Milliardo Peacecraft]

@Colu, @jwcarlson  I just wanted to thank both of you for the advice on my black skirted tetra and give you an update.  I used maracyn for 5 days and its now been several days past that and the tetra is looking and doing much better, I think it worked!  Thanks!

[jwcarlson]

Has the gill inflammation/pinkness gone away?

[Milliardo Peacecraft]

@jwcarlson. Yep, the inflammation around his gills went down quite a bit.  I tried getting a picture tonight to show the difference, he wasn't totally cooperating, but i did get 1 pic that wasn't too blurry.