# Seeking Gill Curl Advice



## pshopliqstor (May 16, 2010)

This is my first post here, but I have been reading P-fury topics for many years, and would like to thank everyone for contributing to this site! I have been keeping Piranhas off and on for about 10 years. I am by no means an expert, however. I just enjoy them and try to take care of them to the best of my ability.

Here's my issue...

Currently, I have two RBP's in a 75 gal. In May this year, Razor was 2" and Laser was 1 1/2" so it was a little tricky making sure they "played nice" during the growing phase without incident. One night, Razor (2") decided to rip off a large portion of Laser's (1.5") gill plate on his left side. I took a picture in May of the injury and posted it below. I was worried Laser wouldn't survive, but through reading posts on here, I lowered my water temp to lessen aggression and added salt to help the injury. The gill recovered and regrew over the next month or so.

So now Razor and Laser are both about 5". Last week I noticed Laser's recovered gill plate was showing what looked like gill curl. The last couple weeks I have been dealing with a green algae bloom. I researched on P-Fury because I have never dealt with a P with gill curl before. I added another power head to the tank so now I have a penguin 330 and a 170 on either side of the tank. I started doing water changes every other day at about 15%. I don't have recent water parameters, but I know you all have said the best thing for gill curl is keeping the water as pristine as possible, so that's what I'm trying to do.

From looking at Laser, it looks like the curl is only at the bottom of the gill, which is the area that was totally bitten off months ago. The upper gill looks flush to the body when closed. Basically, I don't want this to get worse and I'm not sure if its beyond the point where it will heal itself by maintaining good water quality.

The thought of surgery scares me because I would want to use Pat's knock out method and I know when I put Laser back in the tank it might take a day or so for him/her to come back to. I don't want Razor to think I'm throwing him a big silverside for dinner when I put Laser back in the tank knocked out.

Suggestions, observations, or two cents of any kind would be greatly appreciated!


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

...get 3 more reds....many people complain that if you dont have over a 3 fish "shoal" the aggression level is much higher...as for the gill curl i would seek some aquarium salt and some medications that you could treat him with


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

I'd sedate him and trim it. He shoudl recover almost full from sedation within about an hour of returning him to the tank using pats method which i have used once. I would keep him seperated from the others with at least a divider when he is recovering for mayby an hour or two. There are no meds for gill curl. Are both gills effected?


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## Soul Assassin (Nov 21, 2006)

CLUSTER ONE said:


> I'd sedate him and trim it. He shoudl recover almost full from sedation within about an hour of returning him to the tank using pats method which i have used once. I would keep him seperated from the others with at least a divider when he is recovering for mayby an hour or two. There are no meds for gill curl. Are both gills effected?


i second that, it doesnt look that bad from the pic but only if the "soft" part of the gill is curled. it should be fairly easy to trim that piece with sharp curved scissors. If the actual hard part of the gill is curling it will be a lot harder. B/c it was injured b4 there is no telling how it will grow back again after the trim, it should have grown back properly the first time around. Dont know but I think it is worth a try.

GL and let us know what the plan of action will be

and welcome


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## pshopliqstor (May 16, 2010)

It's only the one side of the gill, and it's only the bottom 1/4 of the gill that's curled, I have noticed tho that the middle of the gill is becoming slightly S-shaped at the edges.

After the injury, the gill did grow back normally. I think this development had to do with water quality from the algae bloom and lack of oxygen.

I do think it is only the soft part curled that this point because when the gill is closed it still creates a "seal" at the bottom where i can't see any red inside.


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