Illness/Sickness: Prominent vein and fluff loss

[Yenna]

My axie is a 1.5-year old boy living in a spacious tank with two brothers. Since we had him, he has always had one gill filament deformed and kind of purplish (as if a blood clot or something), it never bothered him, a perfectly healthy chap. But recently he lost all the fluff in the purplish area and generally gills on this side look worse than on the other side or compared to his brothers' gills. Recently, he seems to be eating less as well. The vet said it might be fungal and suggested to treat it with malachite green, which as I found on the forum is highly toxic for them, so I didn't use it. Unfortunately, there are no vets specialising in axies in particular in my area, just a general vet who just guessed the cause. Has anybody ever dealt with anything like it?

 

[wolfen]

looks like an enlarged vein in his gill stem, shouldn't be an issue unless it starts bleeding.
as to the gills themselves ensure there is adequate water oxygenation and that your water parameters are correct, adding 2g/l non-iodised salt to the tank will help with gill growth and help protect against fungal issues.

 

[Yenna]

looks like an enlarged vein in his gill stem, shouldn't be an issue unless it starts bleeding.
as to the gills themselves ensure there is adequate water oxygenation and that your water parameters are correct, adding 2g/l non-iodised salt to the tank will help with gill growth and help protect against fungal issues.

Thanks a lot for your answer. Water quality and oxygenation seem not to be a problem or cause because two other tank mates have gorgeous super fluffy gills. I'll keep monitoring closely his condition, because otherwise he doesn't show any signs of illness.