Left Gill Slightly Open Please Help

[bellasia]

Hi am new to the site please can you help, last week during a water change i was unable to catch Blaze my Betta in the net and had to change the water with him in it (never happened before) anyway he was quiet stressed and was constantly flaring the following day i noticed his left gill was slightly open and has not closed since then. He has been eating and is active as normal and is not struggling to breathe, but im concerned is he ill or will this make him ill? will his gill go back down.

4 Gallon tank weekly water changes and vaccum the gravel weekly

Ammonia/nitrites 0

Nitrate 25

PH 7.6

KH 180

GH 250-500

 

[This Old Spouse]

Do you have a nitrite reading? Why do you remove the fish with every cleaning? I'd think that would stress him out more than just doing the cleaning with him in it. I think if he gets used to you doing the cleaning while leaving him in there it would be better in the long run. Start with smaller, more frequent water changes until he gets used to it, then offer a snack when it's over to let him know it all ends well.

I wouldn't worry about the gill at this point since it seems everything else is fine with him.

If you're using test strips, do yourself and your fish a favor and buy a liquid test kit such as Nutrafin, API or Salifert so you can get some accurate readings.

And last but not least,

 

[bellasia]

Do you have a nitrite reading? Why do you remove the fish with every cleaning? I'd think that would stress him out more than just doing the cleaning with him in it. I think if he gets used to you doing the cleaning while leaving him in there it would be better in the long run. Start with smaller, more frequent water changes until he gets used to it, then offer a snack when it's over to let him know it all ends well.

I wouldn't worry about the gill at this point since it seems everything else is fine with him.

If you're using test strips, do yourself and your fish a favor and buy a liquid test kit such as Nutrafin, API or Salifert so you can get some accurate readings.

And last but not least,

Hi thanx for replying nitrite is 0, was told its much better to remove the fish whilst cleaning, hes also pretty small and when vacuming the gravel everything moves around quiet alot which he did find distressing, am now cupping him instead of using the net which is much better. Yes i do use test strips can be hard matching the colours sometimes are they not particulary good then?

 

[This Old Spouse]

The strips are notoriously inaccurate. It's really best to get the liquid tests so you can be sure of your readings.