Hi y’all, I’m looking for advice on what could be causing my lotl gills to remain short. I have a 6-year-old female golden albino. Any and all advice is welcomed! Also note. Ive owned her for 6 years so I’m pretty educated on the basics.
Some background.
In 2023, I moved back to Texas. And long story short, I was having some water quality issues bc I was unaware of what the city treated the water with chloramine and the conditioner (Prime) that I was using wasn’t removing all of it. Leaving behind ammonia a day or two later that I wasn’t aware of. After dealing with this water quality issue for about 4 months and having to tub my girl after every water change, I switched to spring water to get a quick solution and reduced the possibility of stressing out my lotl.
After doing some research, I found out that the water here is treated with chloramine. Since then, I’ve figured out how to properly remove the chloramine, allowing me to use tap water again and instead of Prime, I now use Fritz Complete. So all my problems seem solved and my api test shows that my water quality is good.
HOWEVER, her gills still aren’t as fluffy as they used to be. And are staying short. So I feel like I’m missing something, but I’m not sure what else to do or to check or to look into.
Her current tank parameters are in the ideal range:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 15–20
KH: 4
GH: 10
pH: 7.4
Temp: 65°F
Is there anything I’m missing? Any other water tests I should be doing? I just want to make sure I’m not overlooking something that could be causing her gills to stay short?