Curled Gills

[mollythecow]

I have a four-month-old axolotl. It looks like her gills are a bit more curled the usual. Any opinions or tips to help stop this.

- ammonia is at 2.5.

 

[SirTorro]

Curled gills are usually a sign of stress. The ammonia levels are a bit high.., 2.5 isn’t terrible, but 0-1 is usually ideal. To reduce the amount of ammonia in your tank, make sure to clean up any food that your axie hasn’t eaten and do water changes regularly. If you have a strong filtration system, sometimes it can move your axie’s gills a bit. To see if it might be due to the filtration, let your axolotl swim around and see if the position of their gills changes.

 

[mollythecow]

Sorry I meant 0.25! I have a filter that has low flow but pretty strong I just did a water change yesterday.

 

[AMurry24537]

Sorry I meant 0.25! I have a filter that has low flow but pretty strong I just did a water change yesterday.

More often than not, curled gills are caused by water flow that's a bit too strong. Depending on what kind of filter you have, there should be ways of decreasing the flow (spray bar, air valve, changing the output direction, etc.). You should be able to google something like "How to reduce output flow on (X filter)," but there are also lots of ideas on this website as well.

 

[mollythecow]

Thanks! There is a fake plant in the way. So that should help!