Curled gills...stressed?

[Foxypaws]

Coa was fine when I came to feed him this morning. All chilled out in the grass. I fed him a small worm, but didnt really expect him to eat more than that. (He acts ravenous only every other day and today is his off day)
But I still thought I'd offer another. I put a little eartgworm in front of his nose and he promptly turned away from it. Since then his gills have been up. Did I disturb him too much? Is he fine?



(Also that brown stuff is the remnants of a new tank diatom bloom.)

 

[Krispy]

Those don't look like stress gills to me. Gills can be "up" without stress. Its when the gills are curling so far forward that they look like in a hook shape. Also, wiggling a worm in front of his face shouldn't be causing him huge stress, perhaps he turned away because he was full or not ready for his next worm. Many of my older juvenile and adult lotls need 5, 10, even 15 minutes before they'll eat the rest of their meal.