Gill Stripes

[KageBunshin]

Today I tried something new for my MG. I put my red CT in his holding cup and floated it in my MG's tank. The both had a nice flaring session (closely monitored of course with net in hand in case the red ct jumped out of his cup). I never seen my MG flare so wild before! But after the flaring session I saw that he developed two vertical lines on his gills... Like stretch marks. I have seen this on my Plakats but they weren't this dominant. After 5 minutes the mark as lessesed. My question is... are these lines bad? Did I over do it?

 

[KageBunshin]

OK... update... The gills are back to semi normal, But I still want to know if these stripes are normal... Can anybody clarify this for me?

 

[Synirr]

Those stripes sound like the normal gill stripes bettas sometimes have, so it's probably normal. Even male bettas can go through very slight colour changes sometimes, so I'm guessing the flaring session prompted him to show off his gill stripes

 

[Sorrell]

Splendens have gill bars that they display when they are excited, flaring, spawning, etc. Nothing to fear

 

[KageBunshin]

yeah, he was really excited and pissed because this time the other betta was IN his tank and not next to it. Also It gave him a chance to swim around the cup and not back and forth against a wall.