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Congo Tetra with exposed gills? Why

Zak Rafik

Member
Joined
11 Aug 2014
Messages
466
Location
Singapore
Hi everyone,

I bought 14 Congo tetras for my 4 feet / 120cm (255 Lt) planted tank.
There are about in average 4 cm to 5 cm in length.
It has been about one week now and all the fish seem to be eating well and exploring the tank.

Apart from these fish, I have 9 rummynose tetras and algae eaters ( 5 Otos, 10 Amano shrimps, 15 Red cherry shrimps)

Tested the water parameters 2 days ago and all was at 0 ppm except for No3 at 20 ppm (may be due to EI fertilization.)

I noticed yesterday that only one Congo tetra had a red coloration near the gills. Upon further inspection, it looks like the gills on its right side is exposed. The other side is fine and normal looking.
The fish eats fine with the other and active in the tank.
There are no markings or spots on it body.
The fins and tail area look fine.

All the other fish are healthy and doing fine.

I would find it most helpful if the members can explain what's happening to this congo tetra and is this some time of disease or is this due to fighting among the tetras?

Please find the photos taken this morning.

Thank you so much
Raffik


http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b631/Zak_Rafik/Congo-Gills001_zps1f0f0213.jpg
http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b631/Zak_Rafik/Congo-Gills002_zps7bbdff5b.jpg
 
Using the planted tank disease database I would say that could be caused by external parasites, either:
"Small gill parasites (monogenetic trematodes)"
or
Gill Flukes (gyrodactylus)
 
http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Common-Freshwater-Fish-Diseases/13/

Not sure how to treat, I would google medication for gill flukes/external parasites or just go to your lfs and ask/see what they have.

This isn't necessarily gonna kill your fish, I had a sterba's cory with a bad fungus infection that seemed resistant to medication and he survived happily for months. If you can treat it quickly it should be possible to save the fish, good luck.
 
Hi, I'm by no means an expert but I have noticed something similar on danios before.

Is the gill covering (operculum) opened revealing the gills or is it just short?

A short operculum is a common deformity observed in danios at least. For example from http://zebrafish.org/documents/faq.php:

'My fish seem to have damaged gill covers so the gills are visible. Is this normal?

Malformations of the operculum in zebrafish are fairly common. Operculums can be shortened or curl outward exposing the gills. The curling of operculums can be progressive and more pronounced in older fish. The causes of operculum malformations include genetic (very common in zebrafish with a Tübingen background), embryonic temperature shock, nutrition and possibly chemical agents. Malformed operculums do cause changes in water flow through the gill chamber and often result in an increased respiratory effort. Some photos of the condition in a TU adult are included below.'

operculum_mal_fish.jpg
Not my image.

It may just be a natural deformity. In which case I don't think you can do anything about it.

Hope this helps.

Jim
 
http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Common-Freshwater-Fish-Diseases/13/
just go to your lfs and ask/see what they have.

This isn't necessarily gonna kill your fish,

Yes I'll visit the LFS and ask their opinion also.

Is this contagious, meaning spread to other fish?

Btw thank you for the link.

Hi, I'm by no means an expert but I have noticed something similar on danios before.

Is the gill covering (operculum) opened revealing the gills or is it just short?

A short operculum is a common deformity observed in danios at least. For example from http://zebrafish.org/documents/faq.php:

'My fish seem to have damaged gill covers so the gills are visible. Is this normal?

Malformations of the operculum in zebrafish are fairly common. Operculums can be shortened or curl outward exposing the gills. The curling of operculums can be progressive and more pronounced in older fish. The causes of operculum malformations include genetic (very common in zebrafish with a Tübingen background), embryonic temperature shock, nutrition and possibly chemical agents. Malformed operculums do cause changes in water flow through the gill chamber and often result in an increased respiratory effort. Some photos of the condition in a TU adult are included below.'

operculum_mal_fish.jpg
Not my image.

It may just be a natural deformity. In which case I don't think you can do anything about it.

Hope this helps.

Jim

Hi
Thanks for all the details. The photo of the zebra fish's exposed gills is exactly how it looks like for my Congo Tetra.

Is this common among tetras too?
The LFS had only 14 of these beauties and as it was closing for the day, I didn't have the time to inspect all the fish. I grabbed all 14 of them.

Cheers
Raffik
 
Last edited:
Yep a genetic deformity would have been my guess too...a lot of fish these days are interbred to within an inch of their genome and deformities are consequently quite common. But that's not to say it wasn't caused by some sort of parasite etc.
 
I've got a shoal of Congos, one of which has exactly the same condition, otherwise it seems fine, as does the one with the bent lower jaw !
They are great fish once they colour up.
 
I've got a shoal of Congos, one of which has exactly the same condition, otherwise it seems fine, as does the one with the bent lower jaw !
They are great fish once they colour up.

I'm glad to know that it wasn't due to some parasite as I didn't quarantine the convos as they were from a shop that actually does it for all their fish.

As mentioned before mine feeds and explores the tank very well and infect if it was turned to other side, it quite difficult to point him out.

But I notice my whole shoal swims about the tank when there is no one nearby but the moment I come near, the whole group hide amongst the plants. Does the happen for yours too?

Cheers
 
Hi all,
It maybe a thyroid tumour, they are quite common in soft water tetras.
Thyroid tumours can be caused from the lack of iodine in the diet. If the tumour is under the gill of the fish and is causing the gill to remain open, the problem is likely a swollen thyroid and can be treated with potassium iodine. Place the fish in a hospital tank. Add 1 milligram of potassium iodine for every gallon of water. Re-dose proportionally after every water change. The treatment period could take up to 4 weeks
from <http://www.conwaytropicalfish.com/tips.htm#D>.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi
Thanks for the inputs and tips.
Just an update. The Congo tetra with the exposed gills seem to be doing fine. Feeding very well and sometimes a bit greedy. Like the rest of the group, he has started to show some awesome colours. I just did a massive plant trimming and now the Congos are exploring the tank's front. My Rummynose Tetras behaved in the very same manner.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I know this post has been years now. Came upon this post as I was trying to do a Google search for the same situation.

Does anyone know if maybe it might be a dominance thing with males when they're trying to sort out their ranks? Im noticing it happening to only males (or atleast in my experience). 2 of my males have missing gills as well.

I adopted my first congo tetra male and had him solo with other fish for a week. He was in the same tank with my glowlight and neon tetras in the beginning. I knew I needed more but it was tough to find them at the time so I ended up with whatever the lfs had left. 2nd batch was a young male and 2 females. One day I noticed the young male is missing his right gill cover. I see them squabble around from time to time, sometimes during feeding time. A week later I get more and added another male (adult size and bigger than the ones I currently have)and again with 2 females. Its been a week with the new congos and im noticing that the newest and bigger congo male lost his gill as well. All of my other congo tetras are females.

I may be mistaken but im thinking thats what happens when male congo tetras fight. Taking anothers gills puts them in their lower place for the rest of the school to see. When they fight they do seem like they're dancing side by side almost like in tandem.

I just wanna open the topic to other possibilities other than funggal infection because my experience on both occasion was instant and not like a fungal infection was going on.
 
Have you got any photos? I’ve seen it before in fish but always thought of it as a genetic defect they’re born with rather than disease or an injury. That’s not to say an injury couldn’t cause the gills to become exposed though.
 
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