My del is 6 1/4" and still has external gills. It has no defects and I keep up the water quality and it gets fed a varied diet including pellets. It feeds well and is active. Not to derail but should I be worried that mine still shows external gills too?
My Del lost his gills at ~3" mark. I'm curious What has his diet been ?? I agree it doesn't look like a parasitic issue or physical, I think had he hit the glass hard enough to do that sort of damage he would have floated straight to the surface.
My bet would be some sort of metabolic bone disorder, might be genetic or dietary. If it is dietary it may be reversible or at least be able to top it from progressing.
My Del lost his gills at ~3" mark. I'm curious What has his diet been ?? I agree it doesn't look like a parasitic issue or physical, I think had he hit the glass hard enough to do that sort of damage he would have floated straight to the surface.
My bet would be some sort of metabolic bone disorder, might be genetic or dietary. If it is dietary it may be reversible or at least be able to top it from progressing.
His diet has been mainly krill and tilapia, with occasional blood worms, earthworms, market shrimp, live ghost shrimp, and hikari carnivore pellets. He's actually been pretty active the last couple days but still has the hump and difficulty swimming. He can use his tail but mainly uses his pectoral fins to move, more so than the other polys do. And when he rests on plant leaves his tail just hangs like an L.
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Hmm. Diet sounds good then so i doubt that's the cause, but if it were me I'd still try to feed something high in calcium like earthworms for a while. If you have softer water maybe a bit of crushed coral to increase the calcium levels in the water as well and see if that helps. Again his diet sounds fine but it might be worth a shot and wouldn't do any harm.
Im sorry scotty thats terrible, just goes to show these guys shouldnt be captive bred. That really does suck, he has such a nice pattern. Im thinking its genetics in this case
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Hmm. Diet sounds good then so i doubt that's the cause, but if it were me I'd still try to feed something high in calcium like earthworms for a while. If you have softer water maybe a bit of crushed coral to increase the calcium levels in the water as well and see if that helps. Again his diet sounds fine but it might be worth a shot and wouldn't do any harm.
Im sorry scotty thats terrible, just goes to show these guys shouldnt be captive bred. That really does suck, he has such a nice pattern. Im thinking its genetics in this case
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I'm just waiting and watching for now. He did swim straight up for air 3 times that I saw and seemed to do alright; I think it's just horizontal swimming in open water that he struggles with. If I end up having to put him down I will NOT be getting a cb poly again. It sucks to have something like this develop in a fish you've grown for months.
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I had a large ornate that developed a crooked spine...more like the back half of his body was on its side and the front was straight.
Not sure how or why it happened - it had a great diet and lived with other bichirs that didn't develop the curved spine.
The fish lived for several years in my care. It died after jumping out (I was out of town and my wife said that she screamed after finding a dead, 15" "snake fish" on the floor of the fish room).
Well he's still around and growing. I've noticed increased activity from him; he goes up for sure more frequently than he used to but those gills aren't going anywhere. Still has a good appetite and even though he's almost always resting on plants/driftwood he changes locations often so he's getting around alright. He uses his front fins more than his tail for locomotion but he can use the tail. When he swims is hangs at a 30-90 degree angle. Decided to call him Hunch. Guess he'll just be my wonky little guy for the rest of his life
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Totally sucks, i'm thinking my palmas is going to suffer the same fate. He swims fine but it almost seems like he has a kink in his back sometimes. He's newer to me so i hope it turns out ok for the both of us
