Damaged Gill?

[Twigwise]

Hi! This is a question about what might have happened and what I should do now. I recently (as in the past two days) have been very busy with work and moving, so I have only been able to check on my axie, Dragon, enough to feed him and make sure he's pooping. Today I got a chance to do a water change and sit down next to the tank and just watch him, and I noticed that he's got damage to his left side gills. It doesn't look too bad- mainly the tips of the gills seem to be regrowing from some damage, and he's missing about half of the feathery bits on that side. He has similar damage on a single gill stalk on the other side as well. There's a slight whiteness surrounding what looks to be the remnants of a wound on the left side, but it's not feathery or otherwise fungal in appearance.

Question one, is, how could this have happened? I have him in a tank with three guppies and a ghost shrimp, but I've been told that ghost shrimp leave axies alone. I was thinking maybe he got the gill stalks stuck in the impeller of the tank's filter, but I don't know if that's something that happens commonly or at all with other axies. If that's the case, though, how can I prevent this from happening again?

Question two, what should I do? I don't think fridging would help in this situation, and even if it would, I've been banned by my family from putting him in the fridge because that would be "gross." Should I give him a salt bath? Should I just leave it be? I've not been in this situation before, and I'm worried.

(I tried to take pictures, but they all turned out blurry, so I hope the description is good enough)

 

[Aharvey93]

Im quite new to axie keeping but I have had something similar happen to my little man

From what I have read I don't think he should be kept with fish incase he decides there a good snack, never heard of keeping it with shrimps but I would assume thats the same kind of thing?

This happened to me a few months ago when my little man got a fluffy fungus gill (white tips and stuff that looked like cotton woll) but it ate a chunk of his feathery bits on his gill and they were patchy and all I did after getting the fungus off and doing a water change was wait it out a little bit and they have regrown pretty well and he didnt seem to notice or care.

What I would do personally if he is still eating and acting normally is just make sure your water is clean and the nitrite/nitrate/ammonia/Ph is fine and just watch him for a day or two and see if it gets better or worse. That is if he is still eating and acting normally.

(again I am quite new so not professional advice haha)