Red Gills - Danios

[Patchwork]

bad work firewall so might lose part of this:
Tank as sig, dimensions: 68 x 38 x 78 roughly.
12 danios in total
ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates under 40
tank contents: lava rock, bogwood, mangrove root ornament, terracota pot, misc plants (cant rem names)
red gills showing on danios last day and a bit

 

[Bloo]

Is your tank in inches or centimeters ?
How many US gallons or litres does your tank hold ?
How long have you had the Danio's ?

 

[Patchwork]

finished fishless cycle
130Lt (UK)
cm
1week
fish arent gasping or lethargtic

 

[Bloo]

To me it actually sounds very much like ammonia poisoning or nitrite poisoning. You are 100% certain your ammonia and nitrite have both remained at zero every single day since your fish were added ?

 

[Patchwork]

Unless the test kit has been wrong. I will buy another independant kit today and re-test tonight. Paranoia combined with new fish owner = consistent water testing.

 

[Bloo]

Unless someone else has a better idea, my guess remains and I suggest water changes and hope for the best - if the damage is not too severe they should recover just fine. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Patchwork]

will do a new test tonight and then 25% water change.

 

[ncjharris]

Are we talking about viewing the gills from the outside, or the inside, when the fish breathes?

As far as I am aware, all gills have a red colour, because of the thinness of the blood vessels to allow the oxygen transfer to occur.
If your danios are light coloured (zebras, leopards or albinos for example) then this may show up more prominently.
I'm not at home so I can't check, but I think all my fish have red colouration under their gills.

If there are no other symptons (eratic swimming, lethargy, skin leisons etc), then they may be nothing wrong.

However, if this is an excessive colouration, my money is on some kind of poisoning - as bloos links.
Water changes and aeration are the way to go in that respect.

 

[Vitae]

If your danios are light coloured (zebras, leopards or albinos for example) then this may show up more prominently.

Patchwork's partner here. Thank you for the answers to our question.

Are we talking about viewing the gills from the outside, or the inside, when the fish breathes?

Red blotches over their gills, on the outside. I sit and watch the fish every night, especially when coming home from work. I was the one who "raised the alarm" this morning, because their gills were not that red yesterday, I'm 100% sure of it.

On the other hand, I also noticed that both the leopard and zebra danios have "coloured up" somewhat lately. That is what I read fish do once they have settled into their new enviroment and calmed down. The leopards look more and more like small trouts taking on a goldenish colour, and the zebras' stripes showing off a wonderful metallic blue colour in certain lights. They were active this morning and ate their small breakfast with speed and gusto. So perhaps the new red colour is natural? But then again what if it isn't.

Could be that I overreacted this morning - but again I'm dead certain of what I saw this morning compared to yesterday, but I still think a 25% water change might be in order after testing again for Nitrites, Nitrates and Ammonia. Ammonia and Nitrite were at 0ppm and Nitrates perhaps only 10ppm yesterday night. The tank is well cleaned, no problems with algae. So I'm confused. We have certainly not overfed them.



What could I have missed?

Regards, Vitae

 

[WILDER]

Any signs of flicking and rubbing against objects, or laboured breathing, do the gills look swollen or stick out abit.