Morphing?

This is Leno:







As you can see his gills are almost gone and his tail is shrinking too. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Phil

He may not be morphing. I have read/seen many thread s of similar nature and the axie is usually sick possibly through water quality and/or temp.

Have you checked your water parameters - ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

Usually that is the first thing you should check.

It may be a good idea to remove him from the tank and place him in the fridge until you have the results of your tankwater. Just make sure to put enough water just to cover him so he doesn't float. The cold water has more oxygen and will alleviate any stress.

Does he share with any others? How often and how much % do you do when waterchanging? What is your tank temperature?

parameters-
ammonia - 0ppm
nitrite- 0ppm
nitrate- 10ppm
I havn't had a thermometer in there for a while but is is usually around 20C I have never seen it rise above 22 even in the height of summer

I probably don't do enough water changes about 20% once a month

He shares the tank with his 2 siblings and the wildtype (in my display picture) his golden albino sister has always had smallish gills but they are very full she also spends some time near the surface although not as much as leno his other sibling is much bigger than the other 2 (although all are from the same batch) and she has much bigger gills although they do look a little empty recently- the wildtype has always had big full gills. Could it be a genetic thing?

Leno has been like this for quite a while now he went in the fridge on christmas day and came out couple of weeks later having shown no signs of improvement- the reason I suspect metamorphosis is because the main branches of his gills are now shrinking. I was thinking of moving him into a tank with a beach-type setup with water just a little bit deaper than him so he can climb out if he wants.

Thanks for your help,
Phil

P.S. He is also off his food recently- others are all eating fine and are fed on earth worms sometimes frozen bloodworms and very rarely beefheart- although this used to be the staple diet

(Message edited by ebotron on April 15, 2007)

Unfortunately Leno died today

But I am still concerned about the others
The wildtype seems ok
The golden albino has very small gills and is heading the same way
The leucistic has just recently begun to loose it's gill feathers

Yes once a month water changes is not enough. Since you had three axies in there it was probably very dirty. That may be the cause of the death. I recommend cleaning soon to save the others.

I am sorry to hear that.

Phillip sorry to hear about Leno, those your parameters weren't showing any problems which means either your test kit may be old/reason or some other reason. How often do you test the tankwater? Just wondered maybe you should take a sample of tankwater in to the LFS/petshop and get them to test for it and see if your parameters differ. With the others if you have any concerns, remove them from the tank and place them in a bucket or container/tub of dechlorinated water and do daily changes till you find out.

I think I will remove them and put them in the fridge. The golden albino has taken a turn for the worse and all are starting to show symptoms. I have also noticed that the golden albino is becoming very red- leno was getting bright red veins all down his tail before he died. Has anyone seen anything similar or can offer a diagnosis?

The redness looks almost like a rash

When our whites are stressed their tails start to show either the red veins or extreme pinkness like rash. Generally ours tend to get that way round the summer as the temperatures warm up.

I had a white axolotl and it had a fungus which got better but then 2 weeks later he started to loose his gills and was swimming to the top a lot. Is it some strange thing that only happens to white axolotls because my wild types are fine and they lived with the white one.

No, that's entirely normal, usually the weakest of the bunch will show it first. Usually when that happens you have to check what factors could be effecting it; ie: tank temperature, water quality and try and fix them so the same thing doesn't happen with the others.

I think the thing that affected mine was the tank temperatures because I it was in Summer and the weather was really hot everyday for a weak. I the water temperature was 24.

I don't hold out a lot of hope for the golden albino but the other two look happy

Can anyone recommend the use of antibiotic? how much would this cost?

I am thinking of putting my fish into their now empty aquarium and putting the axo's into the fish aquarium when they return to health. Do you think the fish will be ok? They are tropicals so the temp will be raised will this kill off any bacteria? Will the fish be susceptible to the same condition- it seems like the sort of thing only sals would be affected by...

ok- update

I put the heater in last night to have the tank warm for the fish but my thermostat is still on my fish tank and I got up this morning to find the tank at over 30C Surly this will kill off any bacteria that where working at 19C?

totally unreliable as most bacteria will breed faster at higher temps.

Sorry I'm a little confused do you have fish and axolotls in the same tank?
And Yes I agree with Ian dont make it warmer the bacteria will just grow!
What type of filter do you have, when you do a water change do u clean the filter in the water from the tank?

Also If there going to the surface a lot for air, this is probably because they use their gills to take in oxygen from the water, so if their gills are in bad condition they will get oxygen from the surface, I'm then assuming that this can make them float more because of the air thats inside them!
So if they are doing this I suggest taking them out of the tank and putting them into something where the water level is just a few inches over them!

I don't have fish in the same tank I was asking about moving fish into the tank now that the axolotls are out and if the fish could catch the same thing if they where to be moved.

I have already moved the axolotls into the fridge I haven't seen any improvement but neither have I noticed anything getting worse.