# RTC Gill Curl



## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

Just found out about Gill curl on my red tail, (this is the first RTC ive owned) Got him at king ed's about 3" it's now about 10"

Was wondering If I have gill curl, Should I perform surgery? Lot's of vid on youtube make it look fairly easy with a good set of a sccisors and a steady hand.


Ive read that this can occur from not enough tank sapce and or genetics, water quality. 


If any members have experiance with this let me know as im learning more and more each day about keeping monsters.




Also, I have him in a 150 string ray tank, So its a 5 footer instead of a 6 footer, but its got a lot of depth front to back. 

I only got enough log in the tank for the plecos and smaller cats to be happy. I would say 3/4 of the tank is easily swimable for him, Should I make even more room for it? when he was younger I had the tank pretty packed so Im wondering If I may have cuased this when he was little from lack of space ( lots of space just lots of obstacles lol )


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

Have u been feeding it superworms before? Do you u have pics? If the curl is still on the gill membrane best to cut it now before it starts folding to the gill plate. That is the tricky one to fix. It's still fixable with with a massage method but u have to put the aro to sleep to prevent major injuries.


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

its not quite folded to the plate but almost, No never fed it super worms, 

Il try to get pics asap and show you,


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

you can cut it. Though it usually will re-occur. Time to build a bigger tank


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

I am going to get him into a 220 next, 
Im wondering if its more so genetics then size of tank, pics to come


















I made sure theres plenty of space around each part of that log so he can swim through it with ease,


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

There are many things that causes gill curl on aros. Water quality, tank no narrow, how it eats (The way they eat superworms for example). Best to cut the curl part now before it gets worst.


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

Its for a red tail cat FYI, I notice you said aro
if that makes a diff


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

Ok I cut the gill back as far as I thought safe, there's stil a bit of a curl left but i made sure not to cut the "plate" or anything hard feeling. Hopefully this will help him out!


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## mitchb (Apr 27, 2011)

I think King-el is talking about gill curl on rtg as opposed to rtc. Glad to hear that you got through the surgery though and hopefully it will work out for you.


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

Ktowncichlids said:


> Its for a red tail cat FYI, I notice you said aro
> if that makes a diff


Sorry i miss read. Still procedures are the same.


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

everything still seems fine this morning, The curl I cut seemed close to the gill plate, Hopefully it doesnt come back,

The other side seems to have laid down after i folded it that way and rubbed it, I hope I dont have to cut that side as well, IM going to give him a few weeks and see. 

That was the wierdest thing ive done to a fish since the first time stripping eggs from a female cichlid. lol


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## Arcteryx (Nov 23, 2011)

I never even knew people did that kind of thing to their fish. But damn, you learn something new about this hobby every day!


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

kinda funny, But afterwords my girlfriend said to me "your F****** up" 
I had to explain to her what was happening and why I had to do it etc 

I myself, Felt kinda odd after lol Funny thing is im a hunter, It's not the first time ive had to "perform surgery" lol,


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## Keri (Aug 2, 2010)

Fish feel pain, I'm still horrified that you people do this with no anesthetic - if it was a puppy more people would be upset, but it's not and that's sad.


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

We also keep fish in aquariums is that sad to?
Did anyone even ask if there was anesthetic or did you jsut assume there wasn't any? I dont recall listing how I did the procedure either,

But to put your worried hear to rest, MY gf is a nurse, She has gone to med school for few years, She helped me with this by providing medical grade tools, One of the doctors made her a small amount of tranqulizer type solution wich we then diluted with water so there was hardly any at all, (it would be the equivalant of the chemicals they use to make fish sleepy during shipping) 

20 mins after the surgery he was back to swiming around hunting a gold fish I put in the tank for him and the gar!!


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## Foxtail (Mar 14, 2012)

If it was a puppy... You'd take it to a vet.

Sent from my SGH-T959D using Tapatalk


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

If my silver lab even Coughs I take him to the vet lol, Dog gets treated better then I treat myself! lol!!!


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## JUICE (Jan 4, 2020)

well done for sure .. should have done a video ..lol


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

yes a video would have been awesome.


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## Ktowncichlids (Apr 23, 2010)

To be honest, This is the ONLY video on youtube I found that could give me any advice at all, (aside from studying online pictures of anatomy)

RTC Surgery :

Redtail cat - YouTube

(Mine seemed to wiggle a lot less and took half the duration, I would assume the anesthetic played a role in this lol )


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