Shrinking gills

Would shrinking gills be the cause of the level of oxygen in the water. When i got my axie his gills were around 2cm long. Now i jsut had a closer look at him and they shrunk by half. I keep my tank well airated with teo airstones at full blasst and a spray bar filter. Woudl the shrinking be from water having alot of oxygen in it?

Could be. Do they come up for air much?

no never, i havn't seen them come up for a while.

my axolotls gills shrunk. dont know why, but his was super long. as its been said before there are theories about colder water= more oxygen= smaller gills and vice versa. im no scientist or anything so i cant say if its true or not but the part about colder water= more oxygen is true.

Colder water with an airstone does lead to more available oxygen in the water, and decreases the need for gigantic gills.

The scientific reasons, for Sharn ;) Blood goes through the gill filaments in much the same way blood flows through our lungs. It comes close to the surface and lets go of its CO2 molecules and picks up some fresh O2, and then circulates back out of the gills. If O2 is abundant in the water, there's no need for super-long gills to pick up as much O2 as possible, so the gills shrink.

However, the gills don't get 'bigger', per se. They may get more fluffy, but don't usually grow longer if in a lower oxygen environment. At this point, they'd usually start using their lungs more.

There is so much debate on gill size, that i'm excited to say, i'm going to do a little research project on them next two semesters to find out. I get to order 100 axie eggs next semester and get started! Did I mention I'm excited that I get to play with axies at someone else's expense? I can't wait. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Only problem is, what am I going to do with them after the project? lol. I have a feeling that my family of 5 axies is going to grow.

that sounds like fun, i'll take some...lol.

Well my axie has lost his fluffyness around the gills and shortened his gill size. As long as he isnt swimming to the water surface for air im happy and knowing im doing a good job. I just like the gills because they look cool and make him look more prehistoric...well it does for me

Update: his gills hae shrunk even more, by up to half again!!!!. they are only a coulpe of mm long. The longes being about 5 and shortest around 2!!!! is that good or bad?, could he be metamorphing?

doubt it, thats rather rare. are his eyes popping out? if you really think he is lower your water levels and have a place he can get out onto. i have seen some healthy axies with short stumpy gills though- looks quite funny i think (not being mean or anything)

[Al Cadavero]

Check your water hardness. I noticed this one of my axolotls and I had to rebalance my tank. After I adjusted it back to the right hardness, they are looking more "fluffy". This is by observation. I don't know if light or plants have anything to do with the Oxygen levels either. I notice my tank near a north east facing window and gets some light and has java moss that is growing, the axolots gills are larger. This tank is probably 2-4 degrees F warmer. The other tank is darker with fake plants. That is the tank that I have to work harder to get the cycling right and hardness. This may support the O2 saturation theory. I thought I read high ammonia levels can burn gills, but you would see more distress I believe.
I would check out the the tanks water profile and go to the axolotl site on water condition. I have to be honest, I'm always going to that site and others when it comes to water quality. Chemistry was not my favorite subject.

All my levels are fine. My tank has alot of limescale build up around it, does that mean its too hard?

Stipe, I think it's just a normal thing. You may actually have too much aeration in your tank. With a spraybar, I don't think you really need an airstone. I keep a small bubble bar on about 1/4 power in my tank on the opposite side as the spraybar, just for water movement. But with extra aeration, you can expect to see significant gill shrinkage.

Limescale means you have hard water. You can buy carbonate hardness test kits. If you want to bring down the hardness of your water, try natural driftwood.

hey Joan,"or anyone else" i have duckweed covering the top of my tank, my axies in the other tank used to take a fair bit of air from the top.
now i'm concerned they cant with all the duckweed covering the top, should i get an aerator
"i have a spray bar going the length of the tank"

i think no matter how much airation you put in there they will still come up for air, its a natural thing to them. im not sure what to do about the duckweed, if its safe for them if they accidently get a few leaves when gulping. maybe you could just cover half the tank?

Try using floating foam rings to contain the duckweed, or just yank it out from time to time. It always comes back.

i cant really use it in 1/2 the tank Sharn, it spreads like crazy, i did think of making some kind of rings up so it leaves some clear space for breathing,i was gonna use some small airline hose? so i'll give it a go if not i'll use some foam. thx
duckweed looks great, but is a pain in the #%*...

[Al Cadavero]

when you say duckweed, do you mean the floating small circular plants that multiply like crazy? It is a pain to manage. I've had it for over 3 years in some tanks. You must keep a light over you Axolotls for duckweed to flourish. The time to get rid of it is in the winter (cooler temps and decrease the light in your tank. I don't use artificial light in my Axolotl tanks. My pluerodeles seem to not have a problem with gulping air. I usually skim the surface of their tank to remove a fair amount.

i ended up making these last night out of 6mm airline tubing, and think they are working well

i feed my axies through the holes last night and no duckweed all over me just hope my axies are smart enough to figure out were to go to breath air lol
iv'e got my tank running at a constant 17c

All of my Axolotls seem to have rather large gills, or if they came to me with short gills, they grew larger gills... probably from the sacramento heat we have here in the summer .

Rob, that was a great idea for you to come up with the rings. I'm half tempted to make something like that. I thinned out my duckweed in the last few days, which now I am having to do about once a week or so. It grows so quickly that It's getting harder for me to manage it. Do you still have success with the tubing?

What did you use to seal the tubes? I have little plugs that I might try to use on the ends, but I think I might only have one plug...

Thx Rheann i thought they might sink after a while but there all good
i smoke roll ur own cigarettes and used the filters that i use in my smokes to seal the rings lol , but it's only a temp thing hehe gonna get some wooden dowels from work or u could use airline joiners too
it works a treat i was getting duckweed up to my arm pits that was my way of thinning it lol....
it'a like little port holes