Gill Cover stuck open

[purple_drazi]

One of my girls looks like she's permanently flaring on one side because the gill cover is open. I don't know if it's infected and swollen so it's open or if there's a tiny piece of gravel caught in there. It looks as if there might be something black & gravely looking in there.

I tried putting her in a shallow bowl and gently irrigating the gills with water and a medicine dropper. Didn't work.
Then I thought that if she flared hard enough it might dislodge itself (if in fact, there is something there, which I'm not 100% sure of) so I put one of the boys in the bowl with her and watched them like a hawk. She flared really hard at him but it didn't fix the problem. I put him back.

There's bettamax in her water.

Any ideas?

 

[GuppyDude]

i would medicate the water liek your doing and watch her, if its mearly got somthing jammed in there it will dislodge in time and haveing the gill open wont hurt anything i dont think. is she eating and stuff?

 

[purple_drazi]

oh for sure she's eating. little piglet. (thank goodness!)

I was reading that it might be inflamed, because of nitrate poisoning or possibly bacterial infection and that I'm supposed to add an antibiotic that treats inflamed gills.

Does bettamax work for inflamed gills? It says it's for fungal & bacterial infections on the box but it doesn't say inflamed gills specifically.

 

[GuppyDude]

it wont hurt, an infection could very well be the problem. go into tropical chit chat and ask for a list of meds that will clear that up, iv nvr had any fish that had a gill infection, so im not sure what you would use for that, odds are bettafix wont work for it as its not strong enogh.

 

[purple_drazi]

I'll do that, thanks.