Exposed red gills?

[mommytron]

i picked up 9 glowlight tetras on saturday. half of them look kind of pale while the other half look quite vibrant and actually really pretty. all of them have very red gills. there are two or three with gills that are actually exposed. not sure why, but they seem to be getting picked on a little by the other tetras, too. they all eat great and have gotten quite comfortable in the past couple days. we put a little air stone in this morning for a little more current and they seem to have calmed down a bit, not as much chasing going on, but still a little. got a couple pics of the exposed red gills but they are still kinda blurry:

 

[Crepe]

Are they missing the gill cover itself or what?

 

[mommytron]

i'm not even sure. i was stumped when i noticed it. that's what it looks like to me, though.

 

[Crepe]

I don't think it will hurt them. I hear some captive bred varieties will have missing gil covers. Albino tiger barbs come to mind.

 

[mommytron]

more pics

some clearer pics of the gills

any suggestions? can they be grown back or healed?? should i QT the two that are like this?

 

[wolffish]

I also recently bought some fish from a LPS and they have the same thing. It happens oftan but mine all seem to heal and i never gave it a second thought untill i saw the tread.

 

[BlackMagic]

i think one or two of my neon r like that.
i been a while now and heavnt see any healing.

 

[HN1]

They should have probably been culled. I think it's a fairly common deformity with tetra and angels.

 

[Aster]

Glad i read this thread i have a single red eye tetra in my tetra tank that has this i just noticed it today i was afraid i was going to have to pull him and QT him or euthanize him , glad to hear he can keep on living happily with all his tetra friends