Gill flap deformities

[Synirr]

I've noticed that a lot of my fry, maybe around 15-20, have gill flap deformities of some kind. Some have permanently extended gill flaps, and others appear to have no gill flaps at all. How common is this, and are there any environmental factors that could cause it? All but one of the fry with this problem are in the small group (they are split into groups of small, medium, and large.) They appear otherwise healthy, but it just makes me wonder... if their mother really does have a form of dwarfism and there are no other factors to account for it, maybe that's what is causing it

 

[Kiarra]

This kind of thing didn't appear in any of my spawns, but it did appear in a handful of fry in a friend's spawn. They weren't culled, and I took one of them---a female---into my own home. Other than the fact that I keep her alone because she lacks a gill plate and I don't want other females exploiting that fact to her detriment, she's been completely healthy and just like any other Betta.

Though I don't know what causes it, the prognosis for these fry could be pretty good. I don't know if all of the others with this problem from that spawn survived, but mine is about 4 months old now, and quite healthy.

 

[Synirr]

Well, that's good to hear. I wasn't going to cull them unless the condition was causing them obvious distress, which it isn't at this point... I just can't imagine what could have caused it in the first place. I did notice it in them before splitting them into their three separate tanks, so I doubt it's some environmental factor causing just that one tank to be effected.