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Question: Blinking eyes, vibrating tail

ffwrude

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Hello,

First timer on the forum. I subscribed to ask questions.

I own two axies that are now adults (20+ cm) one male and one female. Have them both since more than half a year. The male is doing something weird since some days. He looks completly normal, eats no problem, isn't stress etc...

But since a few days i see one of his eyes "blink". You know, like when they swallow. He comes near the glass and move around and there's his eye that just blink like a swallow (he isn't trying to eat something).
So... Since he looked fine i dind't think reallly much of it.

But today he did something odd. He was lying on the floor. Just normal. And he started flickering or waving his tail. Like he was cold or something. Not a big shake just... vibrating i guess ?

He stopped it after moving and resume to do his thing but two weird things come to alarm me a little as i grew found of those two bad boys ;)

Water parameters are normal. We just cleaned the tank, changed a little water (something like 15 percent).

Also i noticed something else on both axies. Sometime (and really sometime) it's like they are peeling from their nose. My wife says it's their mucus. It's not white and doesn't look like anything you can see on pictures of sick axolotl.

Dunno what i can tell you more.

TL;DR

- Water ok.
- 200L tank
- Axolotl friendly substrate
- no little stones
- 18 degrees.
- 2 axies (23 and 20 cm)
- Male and female
- Male right eye twitching/blinking
- Male tail vibrating
- Sometime little peel on their nose (can't take pictures because they don't have it right now).

Hope someone can clear me of the doubts. 'cause it kinds put my gills forward if you know what i mean ;)

Thanks in advance and sorry for my poor english

Rude.
 

auntiejude

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Axies don't have eyelids so they can't blink.
Can you post some pictures or a video?
 

ffwrude

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I know they don't have eyelids. That's why i said : "it's like when they swallow". I don't know any other english word to describe it. Maybe.. Sunk into their head ?

Not sure when i can take a video but that's what i wanted to try. We have some kind of algies from time to time so we just cut the light so they die/ don't grow (algies completly unrelated to timing of the problem discribed in this thread).

So not sure for the video since i have to take back the light and wait for him to do that (it can last 20 minutes but he doesn't do that everyday)
 

ffwrude

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Yes. It's exactly like this. (but just one eye).


For the tail i was wondering if it would be a mating thing ? He did that two times in like two weeks (that i saw)
 

headFeed

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I looked it up and found that yes, his tail vibrating is courtship behavior!
From this article.
It talks more about red bellied newts but it does say that the tail vibrating is common in salamanders or "urodeles" which include axolotls.
And I am pretty sure the eye "blinking" is normal, so you shouldn't worry about the eyes or tail.

For the nose peeling, do try to get pictures so someone can tell you what it could be. I'm no expert, I'm just good at looking up information.
 

ffwrude

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OH okay thank you. I'm relieved.

I'll try to take some vids if i can (in better quality) as maybe... Material support ? In case someone else asks the question.

Same thing for the nose peel. I just need those algies to die before turning on the lights again.
 

ffwrude

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We finally got rid of those algies and turned the lights on. Here is the "pealing nose". He seems to have something in his eyes too. The white stufff is just on the glass.

Btw this isn't the male.
 

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