Dark colored gills

[riftwater]

I have 10 sub adult Red Bishops and just noticed one has darker gills than normal. Should I be concerned about a possible parasite?

She's eating and grazing like normal.

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Interesting... have a photo? Are they just darker in pigment or more like a blackish color.

[riftwater]

I just noticed as I was running around this morning, I'll snag a photo when I get home. Not black certainly, but a much darker red than what I noticed before.

[riftwater]

Whatever it was is gone, very odd.

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Is your aeration and surface agitation ample?

[riftwater]

Yes, I keep the water level a little low in fact to make sure the canister output breaks a lot on top.

[...]

That's mysterious mate...i never noticed anything like that when I had them...glad it has resolved but an answer would be good as well...
Any fry as yet?

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

when was the last time you cleaned the filter and substrate? Anything abnormal without you actively changing any routine is those are typically what is to look at.

[riftwater]

No luck on kiddies yet, I've had a couple holding but not for long.
2 weeks on the filter change and I actually pulled all the rocks out this past weekend to make sure nothing nasty was trapped, maybe I let something out by doing so.

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

When was the last time you pulled the rocks and cleaned the substrate before that. That very well may have been the issue. Also FYI, higher fungus spore counts in the water will yield low fry production if at all being that the eggs will be degraded quickly by fungus growth before being either fully fertilized or developed enough to build a mucus coating to protect against it.