New Rescue

[RandomWiktor]

Yesterday, I was in Pet Supplies Plus getting some parrot food and I noticed that one of the betta cups was extremely dirty, the kind of dirty that suggests fin rot and illness. I took a closer look and found a ragged looking betta missing a huge chunk of his tail. He also had several spots on his body that looked as though they'd scraped and healed, but the area remained scarred. In addition, he was had a nasty looking cut on his side, and one of his gills was deformed.
So... I did my thing, yelled a'plenty, made a scene, and tada! Free betta. No store likes poor husbandry accusations on a crowded Saturday night, apparently.
So, my question is, should I be concerned about the gill deformity? It basically looks like the part of the gill that he would flare somehow got flopped over his gill cover, where it rolled up into a neat little bundle. It makes his gill cover jut out on that side, and he does seem to breathe a little funny.
Still, I guess if he's made it to adulthood, it isn't an issue...?

 

[Joby]

Not sure if you should be concerned with it or not. Have had fish with "wonky" sticky out gill plates before and they do just fine.

Good on you for getting him out of that dirty cup

 

[sukie]

Oh I have a vt w/ a gill sticking out! He's doing just fine. . . but he was my lil' junkie for awhile there.

I thought that the gill was sticking out for a reason like flukes or inflamed. I threw every kind of med I could get my hands on. Then after awhile I realized that it was just a funky gill.

Here's pics of him. . can you tell his gill is messed up?

I would research gill diseases and elimate what he might have and then medicate and if it's just like mine - then he'll be fine.

But since the gill is out there - they have a higher chance of getting disease so keeping up on H2O changes are a must.