Are these curved gills?

Hi!

I've had my axie for 2 days now. He's 2.5 to 3" long and is in a 20g long tank. I cycled the tank with guppies and it only took 3 weeks. Ammonia dropped, nitrites spiked, then dropped, nitrates appeared. He has eaten yesterday and today - I just gave him a cut up phoenix worm.

Do his gills look curled, like as in he's stressed? There's really no detectable current in the tank and his temp is 18.5 (its HOT here today!!!!)

I tested the water and the nitrites are 0ppm and ammonia is showing 0ppm to maaaaaaaaybe .10ppm (almost none.) Our bypass water has 1-2ppm ammonia in it and the Prime detoxifies it while the filter bacteria gets rid of it, but prime turns it to ammo I'm temporarily, so it still shows on the test. The tank IS cycled but shows the sliiiiightest hint of ammonia. Will he be ok? I siphoned out any uneaten mysis shrimp i saw and replaced the water with Prime treated water. He's been exploring and looking great, but I just noticed the gills... should I be worried? He's still eating an exploring.... am I just being paranoid?

I don't think his gills are curled at all.
It's only a problem if it begins to get really close to touching its head!! (try googling it)

The temperature is fine at 18.5 c and if the ammonia is a little tiny bit high and you feel bad about it, you can always do 20% (small) water changes daily until it fixes.

Caesar said:

I don't think his gills are curled at all.
It's only a problem if it begins to get really close to touching its head!! (try googling it)

The temperature is fine at 18.5 c and if the ammonia is a little tiny bit high and you feel bad about it, you can always do 20% (small) water changes daily until it fixes.

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Thanks!! This is my first axie, so it's all new to me. He seems pretty happy in there, doing his little acrobatics! Even when the temp got up to 19.5 in the heat today. It's at 19.3 now but should keep going down now that the sun has set.

I have a chiller being tested for me at a fish store, (first 2 didn't work,) and if this last one doesn't work, I can't afford the one that's the next step up, so I will need to rely on fans. In winter the room is between 20 and 22 degrees, so I'm really hoping that a temp of 19 to 21 will be safe for him.

I will Google curled gills too!

Holly12 said:

Thanks!! This is my first axie, so it's all new to me. He seems pretty happy in there, doing his little acrobatics! Even when the temp got up to 19.5 in the heat today. It's at 19.3 now but should keep going down now that the sun has set.

I have a chiller being tested for me at a fish store, (first 2 didn't work,) and if this last one doesn't work, I can't afford the one that's the next step up, so I will need to rely on fans. In winter the room is between 20 and 22 degrees, so I'm really hoping that a temp of 19 to 21 will be safe for him.

I will Google curled gills too!

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Well it's good that you are concerned for your little guy's health! Hopefully you got your money back from those broken ones!! I use a fan + styrofoam (Not sure how much the styrofoam works exactly.. you can test it out though) and it works good Goodluck!!!

little acrobatics haha

Caesar said:

Well it's good that you are concerned for your little guy's health! Hopefully you got your money back from those broken ones!! I use a fan + styrofoam (Not sure how much the styrofoam works exactly.. you can test it out though) and it works good Goodluck!!!

little acrobatics haha

Click to expand...

Will 19-21 be ok as long as it doesn't go any higher?