Illness/Sickness: Gills shrunk, possible eye damage(?)

Hi! I'm very new to the forum and to Axolotls in general. I got my first Axolotl about 3 weeks ago from a friend. Before that the little guy lived with my friend for about 2 years.

Some time after I let him into the new aquarium, I noticed that his gills seem to have shrunk. More specifically, the feathery bits seemed to have almost completely disappeared).

In addition, yesterday I noticed him swimming around more actively than usual. At first I thought it meant that maybe he's more content with the water quality, but later it seemed that the swimming around is kindof panick-y and he didn't seem to react to usual visual stimuli (wiggling fingers on the water surface etc). On closer inspection his eyes seemed cloudy, so I'm afraid that maybe he has some sort of damage in his eyes?

He's generally also had a pretty poor appetite these past few weeks, but I kindof attributed it to the stress from change of environment and since he's a bit chubby wasn't really all that worried about that.

I did some water tests and discovered that my water is a bit on hard, alkaline side (about 24 degrees GH and 7.5-8 pH) and has a slight problem with nitrates, so I bought some reagents to deal with the nitrates; a bit of driftwood to gradually soften the water and made some small water changes in the aquarium.

He's currently housed in a 100 liter (~25 gallons) aquarium with water temperature around 20-21C (68F) and I've been trying to feed him with the sinking pellets meant for Axolotls. At first, he seemed to take them in his mouth but then "cough" them out.

I've attached some photos. The first two are taken soon after I got him and the last one week or two later, you can clearly see that the feathery bits of gills are smaller. I didn't get a good photo of his eyes this morning but will try to get some when I come home from work today.

Can anyone comment? Is the shrinking of gills and loss of appetite a fairly normal reaction to moving aquariums or am I dealing with some sort of a more serious sickness?

The cloudy eyes may be a sign of morphing. Axolotls may morph when under too stressful a situation. The shrunken gills are also a sign. Check the water quality with a liquid test kit and make sure the temp is low enough. Read up on morphing and monitor closely. I don't mean to alarm u but surviving a morph us more rare than common. I can be wrong about this but keep a close watch and try to keep quality stable

I could be wrong, but that does not look like an axolotl, more like an Anderson's salamander, due to the webbed feet and coloration. They are more likely to morph as well

This might help http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...-sure-hes-morphing-ambystoma-andersoni-3.html

Cliygh and Mia said:

I could be wrong, but that does not look like an axolotl, more like an Anderson's salamander, due to the webbed feet and coloration. They are more likely to morph as well

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Awesome thread!!!!!!

It's not an a. andersoni and no it's not morphing.

Cloudy eyes are a common symptom for poor water quality. Can you post your water parameters and your axolotl's diet?

The first question to settle is definitely that of water quality. But some symptoms you describe could be either poor water quality or possible morphing, such as the eye clouding, loss of appetite, frantic swimming and loss of gill filaments. There also looks to be some webbing of the front toes. That water temperature is at the upper limit of what an axie can handle, and I would definitely check the ammonia and nitrites levels as well as the nitrates. It is probably better not to add any chemical stabilisers or PH-changing solutions to the tank water.

Moving axolotls into a new aquarium can cause some stress that may interrupt normal eating habits. Shrinking gills and cloudy eyes are usually from poor water qualit. Such as ammonia toxicity. Shrinking gills can also be caused from having a lot of water movement in their tank.

I would perform a small water change if your nitrates are high, but I wouldn't add any chemicals besides tap water conditioner into your aquarium. Axolotls prefer consistency, and when you start messing with their water chemistry this can cause stress.

I do not believe that it is morphing, nor that it is an Andersoni.

Elise said:

It's not an a. andersoni and no it's not morphing.

Cloudy eyes are a common symptom for poor water quality. Can you post your water parameters and your axolotl's diet?

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No one said it was an andersoni and how can u be sure??? Please don't be so final. Did u read the attached thread at all?

On the first picture, it has webbed feet. Anderson's salamanders have webbed feet, and axolotls don't. Look at the bottom left at the foot. It has webbed toes

You can see it even clearer on the second picture

Cliygh and Mia said:

On the first picture, it has webbed feet. Anderson's salamanders have webbed feet, and axolotls don't. Look at the bottom left at the foot. It has webbed toes

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Its a wild type axolotl......

I don't mean any offense, but I have not seen an axolotl with webbed feet. Anderson's salamanders have webbed feet, look on the second picture, I could be very wrong, but I put my money on Ambystoma Andersoni

Cliygh and Mia said:

I don't mean any offense, but I have not seen an axolotl with webbed feet. Anderson's salamanders have webbed feet, look on the second picture, I could be very wrong, but I put my money on Ambystoma Andersoni

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I will happily take your money I keep both species (as does Elise ) the axolotl in the PIC is clearly not A.andersoni its an axolotl. The PIC below is A.andersoni you can clearly see the patterning, colouration and body shape is different to A.mexicanum. The foot webbing is not visible in the PIC but its absent from the ops first pics anyway. Incidently the axolotl is not morphing, its condition is probably down to water quality.

Huh. I have never seen an axolotl with webbed feet before

We have an adult golden ax and all four feet are the most webbed I have ever seen.....they do exist!

I think the webbed feet MAY be somehow connected to him having fights before with his previous tankmates? He has slight damage on the front left leg from that, for example.

Anyway.

Thank you for your replies! From the replies here and having read a bit more on the net I'm now pretty sure the shrinking gills and cloudy eyes are due to ammonia levels in the water. I conducted some water tests yesterday with the following results:

pH: 8
degrees GH: 24
nh3 levels: about 0.11 mg/L (I have the liquid test kit, but lost the colour chart so I had to compare it with the computer monitor)

I currently have a piece of driftwood in the aquarium to deal with the water hardness in the long term and filter mass for removing toxins and am doing regular small-scale water changes, should that be enough to get water quality in order soon-ish or should I take some more actions?

Also, is there a possibility that I should fridge my lotl for some time to let him recover while the aquarium deals with overall water quality? I know I shouldn't just stick him in the fridge at first sign of trouble, but at what point would that be a good idea?

Again, thank you very much for your replies and discussion, everyone!

If the tank is still cycling pull the axolotl, leave it in a bucket on daily 100% water changes, no need to fridge it. Return it when the tanks ready.

I agree with Ian. I don't think fridging your axolotl is necessary right now, but if your aquarium is cycling I would keep him in a separate container with daily water changes until your cycle completes.

Stopa said:

From the replies here and having read a bit more on the net I'm now pretty sure the shrinking gills and cloudy eyes are due to ammonia levels in the water.

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I think this is a fair assumption. The previous replies suggesting that opaque lenses are associated with morphing in axolotls were misconstrued.