Red gills on fry

[Chris(wildcaught!)]

Hello everyone!

I have a tank with Nannacara Anomala fry, and I am concerned about the gills/ area around the gills, which are a little bit red. This is more pronounced in the smaller fry but exist in almost every fry (30-40 i think) except the larger ones. The largest fry has begun to show adult coloration so the batch is around 4-5 months old.

My concern is that this might be a parasite or bacteria. The behavoiur of the fish is normal, no scraping etc. but as mentioned slower growth in the ones which seems to have more red coloration of the gills.

First I thought i might have to do with bad water quality, due to infreqent water changes during the summer but this is a few months ago and now the water is acceptable, at pH 6.7 and Hardness of 4-5. Nitrat is zero. So if bad water quality was the cause of the problem, then my opinion is that the gills should be ok by now.

So what might it be? And also what kind of medication should be used, considering this is fry?

I have two pictures showing the problem, Unfortunately the quality is bad, i actually don't have a digital camera so i have captured the images from digital video. Hope it is still possible to see something.

Regards / Chris

http://web.comhem.se/~u33409045/Nannacara_anomala_fry_1.JPG

http://web.comhem.se/~u33409045/Nannacara_anomala_fry_2.JPG

 

[Mike Wise]

I personally see no problems. Unless the fish are breating heavy, I wouldn't worry. Young fish have thin gill covers that are translucent. The red (blood-rich) gill filaments are commonly visible through the covers. As they get larger, their gill covers will thicken and become less transparent.

 

[Chris(wildcaught!)]

Mike, I think that you wrote a very good answer. Quoting "Young fish have thin gill covers that are translucent" should explain why the larger more adult fry doesn't look so red in the gill area.

I picked up a fish-medicine book and check against gill flukes, etc. I can't find any symptoms for disease on my fish, so I think i might have been overly worried. Suffering from an imaginary fish illness, maybe.

Regards / Chris

 

[Randall]

Nannacara anolmola fry

Hello Chris,

In the absence of some distinguishable symptom, your fry look perfectly healthy to me as well. Differing rates of growth among a shoal of fry is perfectly normal and is to be expected.

Nice fish!

Good luck!

Randall Kohn