Illness/Sickness: White gills, curled tail, not eating

[Derpmander]

Hey everyone, I'm hoping you can help me out. I'm stressed out because due to outside work circumstances I won't be home until 12 hours from now to do anything for Darwin, but any information to help as soon as I get home would be amazing.

I recently moved my Darwin to my boyfriends house whom I am moving in with at the end of the month. He has an air conditioner, which I decided Darwin needed. I thought the heat was causing him to have this white-ish slimy film all over him, and after the move, it went away on its own, and I thought my days of panic were over.

Yesterday I came over to find him not interested in eating. I took a closer look at him and one of his gills is curled and covered in white, and his tail is very curled at the tip. This morning the whole left side of his gills are now white, and all his gills are curled forward.

I am trying very hard not to panic. Should I go out and buy water testing supplies? Change his water? Are the baby guppies (which he is now not eating anymore) stressing him out when they poke at him? I've never had to give him a salt bath or anything before and I'm terrified to try.

He's about two years old, maybe 5 inches long.

 

[Dipsy66]

Can you post some pics? This will help give everyone a better idea of what's going on.

If it is fungus of the gills you need to try to catch it quickly. My axie got fungus on one gill and it deteriorated really quickly. The good news is that the salt baths made the recovery really quick too....a week later and she was looking good. Four weeks on the gill has nearly completely regrown and has new "feathers" on it.

Don't be afraid of the salt baths....just make sure the salt is non-iodised (I mistakenly used iodised for two baths, realised my error and rectified it asap) and limit it to a maximum of 15 minutes.

There is a great tip on the forum on salt baths...do a search and find it.

Good luck and I hope someone else can give you a bit of sound advice. :happy: