Question: Terrible news and possibly not so bad news?

I also posted this question as a reply to a very old thread about Hawaii.

I just shipped 4 (6-8) month old Axies to Hawaii and unfortunately 2 of them did not make it. The other two are still alive but obviously physically stressed. It was the largest 2 of the 4 that passed. I think it might have been from oxygen deprivation as the flight was delayed 10 hours. I am doing frequent tank changes and adding ice packs to the water. They do seem to have improved over the past 24 hours. They are swimming (slower than normal) and eating. Their gills have gone from bright red almost back down to normal. Their veins system is showing more prominently. Any constructive advice given is greatly appreciated.

It sounds like you're doing everything you can.

Thanks for the reply. I have attached a low quality phone photo of the larger of the two. The coloring of the skin is more or less normal. I was told they are golden albino leucistic crosses. They have always been pale yellow with white spots.

The gills have suffered some damage and are not fully expanding and contracting on this one. On the other one yes. They are eating well and swimming much faster than the first night. They were barely moving when I received them. I guess I'm just very unsure how to visually tell if they are improving or declining in this critical time window. I put them into a new emergency medical tank immediately and did a 90% water change 12 hrs later as I was worried about nitrate. I have not tried to put them in the fridge or do a salt bath as this was not caused by a disease. Should I? I have only been adding ice packs to the water during hot times of the day.

I had one pass away last year from nitrate build up, (over feeding live fish). He seemed perfectly healthy up until a few hours before passing. No physical changes really occurred. In hind site, moving faster around the tank a couple days prior to passing was probably what should have told me he was experiencing something analogous to a chemical burn from high nitrate concentrations. I was deeply troubled by his loss. At this point I have only had a year of both aquatic animal and Axolotl care experience. So please any advice is greatly appreciated.

Both seem to be doing much better. Gills fully expanding and contracting on both now. Swimming faster and eating normally.

How long of a time frame would you say I should keep them isolated from other Axies for if they seem normal? Is a week too short? Is a month too short?

Moved them out of the emergency isolation tank into their new tank setup. Just them. They "seem to be fine" I have noticed that their skin seems more wrinkly than normal. Also wondering in addition to my previous questions about isolation time frames, is there anything I can do to help improve their gills? They never seemed to have very fluffy expansive long gills in the first place. However, they have taken a beating form the shipping. Any advice is greatly appreciated.