Hi, My fiancee and I bought what we think are one female axolotl & one male tiger salamander a week ago from a guy in the mall calling them "baby dinosaurs." All he would tell us was that they were a type of salamander and that they may or may not lose their external gills. We found out after at the local pet store that he was selling a mixture of axolotls & tiger salamanders.
Anyway, neither of us have had any experience with this or even much with setting up an aquarium. We bought a 10 gallon aquarium kit at Walmart, added some pebbles large enough they couldn't swallow, a small cave, and a floating plant. The female seems to be doing ok, but we're not sure about the male. We're thinking he's a salamander as he's shedding a lot, has eyelids, and his gills seem to be shrinking. When we first got him, his gills were bigger than the female's, with lots of hair. Now they're much smaller and kept to the side of his head. Is this normal? Oh, and at the moment we don't have a filter (the one that came with the kit doesn't seem to work) but we plan on getting one today. We have changed the water twice, but from what I've been reading we need to do that every day for a while? I apologize but we're really clueless about this, so any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
Anyway, neither of us have had any experience with this or even much with setting up an aquarium. We bought a 10 gallon aquarium kit at Walmart, added some pebbles large enough they couldn't swallow, a small cave, and a floating plant. The female seems to be doing ok, but we're not sure about the male. We're thinking he's a salamander as he's shedding a lot, has eyelids, and his gills seem to be shrinking. When we first got him, his gills were bigger than the female's, with lots of hair. Now they're much smaller and kept to the side of his head. Is this normal? Oh, and at the moment we don't have a filter (the one that came with the kit doesn't seem to work) but we plan on getting one today. We have changed the water twice, but from what I've been reading we need to do that every day for a while? I apologize but we're really clueless about this, so any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
