# How To Treat Gill Curl?



## jamezgt

I had my Rhombeus for a year and a half now and was given to me by a fellow P-Fury member. When I received him, he had already had gill curl but I never paid attention to it. It's gotten pretty bad now - if the fish is facing directly backwards, I can literally see into his gills. Is there any way to fix this with medication, and what could happen to him if it's not cured?


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## CLUSTER ONE

Surgury is probably the only way now. GC can eventually become lethal if it gets too bad. To stop its progression excellent water quility usually helps. Once the hard gill is effected you may want to consider using anestesia on the fish so you can trim the effected portion of the gill

Post a pic of the fish and your water perams and setup


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## FEEFA

My old mac got gill curl when I slacked on his tank maintainence.
I did the surgery before it hit the hard membrane and he healed perfectly, I also overhauled his tank, and kept his water pristine with tonnes of filtration after that.


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## CLUSTER ONE

****** said:


> My old mac got gill curl when I slacked on his tank maintainence.
> I did the surgery before it hit the hard membrane and he healed perfectly, I also overhauled his tank, and kept his water pristine with tonnes of filtration after that.


My elong had it on the soft membrane when i got him and i gave it sugury a while ago and now its back to normal and looks great. Luckily it was onyl the soft membrane so it was very easy to cut. i used pats method of sedation to calm it down though it wasnt fully out when i did the surgury more just in a good daze so it wouldn't move. Hard membrane surguries are harder just bacsue its harder to cut but its done alot more commonly on arowanas


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## jamezgt

Here is a picture. Is it really bad?


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## FEEFA

It could be worse but I think its time for the surgery, the longer you wait the worse its gonna get and then even the surgery wont help.


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## CLUSTER ONE

It's deffinitly progressed past the soft gill membrane so surgury is your only real option that could be sucsessful


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## jamezgt

Is there like a step by step tutorial that will teach me how to sedate, and actually cut the gills off? I've never done this before, and I don't want to jeopardize his/her safety.


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## CLUSTER ONE

jamezgt said:


> Is there like a step by step tutorial that will teach me how to sedate, and actually cut the gills off? I've never done this before, and I don't want to jeopardize his/her safety.


Read pats sedation article on this site. Its probably in the disease section. I used it sucsesfully. I pretty much dropped the fish in the seditive mix then pulled it out with in a few seconds as almost right away it was sedated. It was my first time sedating a fish so i didnt want it 100% out. For the actual surgury i would do some research on google and watch some youtube vids as there are a ton of arowana GC surguries.

Obviously this is a surgury and if you screw somethign up it can be lethal but leaving GC untreated can eventually become untreatable and lethal as well so if you want to tak the chance at surgury its best to do it now.

First I'd read up on various methods to sedate a fish, tools used and how to do the actual sugury.


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## HGI

It's mostly done on Arowana's but obviously any fish can suffer from gill curls. It's been a while since I've read anything about it but I know there's two ways to go about this, massage or cutting, both ways from what I've read work well but if it's really bad then cutting may be the only successful route.

Here's a few links, hope it helps you and good luck my faith is with you.

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/monster-fish-21/arowana-gill-curl-surgery-massage-method-3788/


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## 1rhom

what causes gill curl?


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## jamezgt

I'm a little scared to proceed with the treatment! LOL

So let me get this straight - I would have two buckets full of tank water, and one bucket with the sedated mixture, and the other acting as the transport bucket. I would then scoop the Piranha out, place it in the sedated bucket, then pull him out onto the surgery table, and snip off the portion of the gill that curls, THEN place him in the second bucket (with tank water) and back to the tank?

Or do I actually have to sedate the tank, then bring him out? I was thinking if I did that, woudln't the tank stay sedated and unsafe for the Rhombeus to come back in? And what ratio do you guys suggest per ml/gallon? It's a 6-7" Rhombeus and I don't want to risk him biting me, or him jumping around everywhere.


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## CLUSTER ONE

jamezgt said:


> I'm a little scared to proceed with the treatment! LOL
> 
> So let me get this straight - I would have two buckets full of tank water, and one bucket with the sedated mixture, and the other acting as the transport bucket. I would then scoop the Piranha out, place it in the sedated bucket, then pull him out onto the surgery table, and snip off the portion of the gill that curls, THEN place him in the second bucket (with tank water) and back to the tank?
> 
> Or do I actually have to sedate the tank, then bring him out? I was thinking if I did that, woudln't the tank stay sedated and unsafe for the Rhombeus to come back in? And what ratio do you guys suggest per ml/gallon? It's a 6-7" Rhombeus and I don't want to risk him biting me, or him jumping around everywhere.


 Do not sedate the whole tank!! Keep the seditive in a larger bucket at least about 5g. Some shallower rubbermaid mayt be easier. Id probaby say net the fish and move it straight to the setitive bucket then to surgury then back to the tank. To revive my p i held it by hand in front of a powerhead (holding its bony stomach and back so im not further stressing it too much. I used i think a bit less then pat suggested but IMO this still knocked the fish out pretty fast so you could litterally dunk the p in the seditive for a few seconds as i put the fish in the seitive grabbed something on the other side of the room and it was already sedated slightly.


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## Genesis8

That is how one of the Gill on my Rhom looks like. If I cut the hard part of the gill off, will it ever grow back the same again?


jamezgt said:


> Here is a picture. Is it really bad?


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## Parsa

i dont understand what this is?? how can i tell if my fish have gill curl? i dont see anything wrong with that pic lol i have a vid that shows the back of my rhoms gills for a few seconds can anyone check to make sure he doesnt have gill curl? heres the link:


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## CLUSTER ONE

Parsa said:


> i dont understand what this is?? how can i tell if my fish have gill curl? i dont see anything wrong with that pic lol i have a vid that shows the back of my rhoms gills for a few seconds can anyone check to make sure he doesnt have gill curl? heres the link:


 Gill curl is when the gill flares out like the above pic. On a fish without gill curl you should not be able to see into the gill as te gill should be flush to the fish's body.

Pictures are alot easier to see gill curl then a vid. From the vid i see it doesnt look like advanced gill curl but there still could be some minor gill curl. Is the rhoms gill injured as i dont see any soft membrane really and have been getting glimpses of red inside the gill which should be covered. Minor gill curl is when just the soft membrane is effected. Its easiest to see looking at the fish from behind as you shouldnt be able to see into healthy gills but with gill curl you can see the soft membrane flaring outv and folding over itself into a curl


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## FEEFA

I did this surgery to my old mac without sedation and it only took 4min.
Get this done already


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## Parsa

ohh crap so now i have to worry about gill curl?


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## jamezgt

****** said:


> I did this surgery to my old mac without sedation and it only took 4min.
> Get this done already


It didn't flop around or anything?

Please elaborate


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## FEEFA

No it was actually very clm surprisingly, however I wouldnt recomend doing it with out sedation.
I used a towel to hold his mouth/head down so he couldnt bite and it was all over in no time.
He lost some slime coat but thats it, other then that he healed 100% and I never slacked on the water quality again.

I wish I had taken a video but was home alone at the time.

Just use and follow the info in the sedation thread and I'm sure your rhom will be just fine, just make sure that you do use a towel aswell, its easier to hold the fish that way.

Good luck and do a video if you can


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## jamezgt

****** said:


> No it was actually very clm surprisingly, however I wouldnt recomend doing it with out sedation.
> I used a towel to hold his mouth/head down so he couldnt bite and it was all over in no time.
> He lost some slime coat but thats it, other then that he healed 100% and I never slacked on the water quality again.
> 
> I wish I had taken a video but was home alone at the time.
> 
> Just use and follow the info in the sedation thread and I'm sure your rhom will be just fine, just make sure that you do use a towel aswell, its easier to hold the fish that way.
> 
> Good luck and do a video if you can


Will do.

Going to buy the alcohol at a LCBO + clove oil at Shoppers later on this week. I have my Winter Break starting on the 20th of December, so I'll do it then. I'll make a video


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## FEEFA

Good luck jamez, hope it goes well and he makes a full recovery for ya


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## Inflade

good luck man, remember use clean towels and clean hands.


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