Is this fry sick? Gill looks puffy

[Jaspyjasp]

Hi Community,

Wondering if one of my apisto fry is sick? This little apisto trifasciata juvie has been sitting in her hair algae “house” all day. (I think it’s a she?) Her gills seem swollen - or sticking out’ish - and breathing a little fast? Haven’t seen her eat today. Does the inside of her head seem a little pink too or am I just overthinking?

pH: 6.7
ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5.0ppm

Posted a video link. I did a big water change and added 2 tsp of salt to the 10 gallon growout tank just in case. The other 3 juveniles seem fine, but they are much much smaller. Any insight is much appreciated!! Thank u!

 

[MacZ]

I did a big water change and added 2 tsp of salt to the 10 gallon growout tank just in case.

Just a little heads-up: A waterchange is a good practice first measure, adding humic substances (aka tannins) aswell, for softwater fish like Apistogramma. Salt has it's uses, even for them, but it's not advisable as a first measure in my opinion. The concentrations needed to e.g. fight back bacteria are not healthy for the fish and come with side effects and contraindications. If the concentration isn't high enough you just raised conductivity to a more comfortable level for bacteria and raised their resistance to it. Lowering conductivity and pH is a better way of fighting them back without nurturing resistances, while doing no harm to the fish.

Now for the fish at hand: You see things like that often. Unless you have to get them through because you have a sales deal, I wouldn't intervene with meds, because fry may react badly to most of them and you might kill all of them off. Losses are a normal thing.
Keep the fresh (RO or rain) water coming, add leaves and elder cones and hope for the best, but don't make any kneejerk moves to safe one singular fry.

Also:

(I think it’s a she?)

Under 4cm it's near impossible to sex them correctly.

Next time you have a case, please use the template:

Template for disease/parasite/death cases

This template contains the most important questions to be answered when dealing with sick or dead fish to find causes and advise on treatments. Please copy and paste into a new thread and answer the questions as precise as possible. Water parameters should be given in numbers. "Fine" or "good"...

apistogramma.com

Without the video the information you gave wouldn't have been helpful at all.

 

[Jaspyjasp]

Just a little heads-up: A waterchange is a good practice first measure, adding humic substances (aka tannins) aswell, for softwater fish like Apistogramma. Salt has it's uses, even for them, but it's not advisable as a first measure in my opinion. The concentrations needed to e.g. fight back bacteria are not healthy for the fish and come with side effects and contraindications. If the concentration isn't high enough you just raised conductivity to a more comfortable level for bacteria and raised their resistance to it. Lowering conductivity and pH is a better way of fighting them back without nurturing resistances, while doing no harm to the fish.

Now for the fish at hand: You see things like that often. Unless you have to get them through because you have a sales deal, I wouldn't intervene with meds, because fry may react badly to most of them and you might kill all of them off. Losses are a normal thing.
Keep the fresh (RO or rain) water coming, add leaves and elder cones and hope for the best, but don't make any kneejerk moves to safe one singular fry.

Also:

Under 4cm it's near impossible to sex them correctly.

Next time you have a case, please use the template:

Template for disease/parasite/death cases

This template contains the most important questions to be answered when dealing with sick or dead fish to find causes and advise on treatments. Please copy and paste into a new thread and answer the questions as precise as possible. Water parameters should be given in numbers. "Fine" or "good"...

apistogramma.com

Without the video the information you gave wouldn't have been helpful at all.

Ok thanks for the tips and appreciate the time spent on the response. I will do another water change tomorrow and add more leaves to lower the ph. I’d be sad to lose this one , it’s the biggest, but i know it happens Hopefully it’ll pull through. I’ll post an update if anything changes. Thanks again.

 

[MacZ]

and add more leaves to lower the ph

Is your water soft enough for that to work? If you have measurable KH this won't change pH. Nevertheless, humic substances are still good.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
What @MacZ says. I'd actually go a bit further.........

. I did a big water change and added 2 tsp of salt to the 10 gallon growout tank just in case.

Don't add salt (NaCl) ever, it serves absolutely no purpose and is actively damaging to your plants and fish.

cheers Darrel

 

[MacZ]

Sorry Darrell, NaCl is indeed okay to cure certain skin ailments and as a homespun remedy against ichthyophthirius.
But: It should only be used in quarantine or a hospital tank. Never in a breeding tank or a growout. A display tank should be treated with actual meds if necessary, though. I'd try to find a different way instead if possible.

 

[Jaspyjasp]

Hi all,
What @MacZ says. I'd actually go a bit further.........

Don't add salt (NaCl) ever, it serves absolutely no purpose and is actively damaging to your plants and fish.

cheers Darrel

Thanks Darrel. It’s aquarium salt. I don’t ever use it unless the fish aren’t feeling well - and normally kanaplex does the trick for me. But with these fry, thought I’d use something more gentle. I can remove and try adding more leaves to lower pH. The juvie is a little more active today but definitely something wrong - I added some live daphnia that it normally goes crazy for and it is not going after them

 

[MacZ]

Aquarium salt is still the same salt you put on your table and in your food. You just pay more because they write aquarium on the package.
Kanaplex is an antibiotic, those are nukes in comparison. In Europe you don't get any without a prescription. And I think unless you have to protect a whole fishroom with very expensive fish antibiotics have more downsides than uses.

If the fish stopped eating it's basically over.

 

[Mike Wise]

In the US aquarium salt is different than most table salt. Here they add iodine to table salt.

 

[MacZ]

In the US aquarium salt is different than most table salt. Here they add iodine to table salt.

We also have iodized table salt, you also have kosher salt without additives. Still, all of it is NaCl in the end. Point being: If you can get pure NaCl, be it stone salt or sea salt, for a few cents a pound in a grocery store, paying almost 30 bucks for a kilogram of the same on Amazon, just because it has "aquarium salt" written on it is kind of a rip off... I think you get my point.