Fat lip and heavy breathing...

[jeep]

I have 2 BD's that constantly lip-lock each other (I think they're males). Both have developed a fat lower lip, but what concerns me is that one of them breaths very heavy. Could this be an outbreak of some sort of gill infection? The gills don't look especially red or inflamed and the fish is eating aggressively, the color is not affected and it's growing to a decent size ???

Thanks,

Brian

[peteypob]

Hi Brian,

My tangerine and R&B turk tend to lock mouths only during feeding time. I have been researching and can't find why they do it, mine don't have fat lips yet. I recently had a problem with my blue one with breathing very hard and one gill functioning. I used Prazi to help this and had great results.

[justathome]

Sounds like they are trying to find out who is going to be dominant.
Angels do the same thing, feeding time makes it worse as they attempt to chase everyone else off, so they can have the food themselves.
Just need to what for bacterial infections from damage around the mouth, but if your water changing regime is good, then I doubt this will be a problem.

[peteypob]

I'm a little confussed....so we just let them duke it out till they decide whos the alfa? My two( tangerine & R&B) have been doing it for about three weeks and i just recently bought a hi fin blue diamond and another member is picking on him. Is this an initiation of some sort?