Ill axie in pet shop

i have just visited the pet shop where i got bertie big balls and to my dismay i saw that they were selling just one further axie who had no gills whatsoever. it looked as if it had morphed but obviously hadn't. poor thing looked really poorly. it had been reserved so i'm hoping that the new owners have a insight into axies. i am sorely tempted to report or complain about the state of this poor creature but just want confirmation that this is not normal? He looked like a newt. please advise before i kick butt!

Did it look like my girl, Aximander?




Chances are it's gills were bitten off, just like Aximander's. In the store she was always rushing to the surface to gulp for air. I debated for a couple weeks on whether or not to get her, and finally decided that apart from the gills, she was fairly healthy. She had some mildly flaky skin and her tail ridge/fin was and still is very receded compared to my other aixe, Falkor. I kept her in a very shallow dish for a month, with the water just covering her and some flat rocks she could climb up on. She would rest with her head partly out of the water at first- I think it was to make surface gulping easier. She just seemed exhausted really. I fed her as much as she would eat and changed her water daily, and she's now living comfortably with Falkor. She still gulps air more than Falkor, but is otherwise normal- minus the gills.

Leah, does Aximander still not have his/her gills. I would have thought that they would grow back.

The left side gills (the ones you can see in the photo above) have not regrown at all, and the right side ones have only shown minimal regrowth- about 3 millimetres. She was already 8 inches long when I got her, so I think age is a big part of why things aren't really regenerating.

You can see the right side in this shot, taken when I first got her.



The gills weren't bitten so far down on the right side, so that may have something to do with why they're slowly regenerating and the left ones are not?

Here's what she looked like in the store:

Wow, that's really interesting. I thought that having gill stalks would be vital for an axolotls survival.

yep that is exactly how the axie looked. in fact ur axie could be the one in the shop they r so similar! i hope your one will be ok. thanks for ur help.

Yeah, i always get pi$$ed off when ever i go to a pet store and see under fed, ill axies.

If pets stores cannot care for their aquatic animals correclty then they shouldnt be able to hold licenses.

Brendan, this is a open forum... Swearing is NOT allowed in any form.. even if you use the $ sign.

i was given the wrong advise and told that i could put my axie in with my goldfish, well you can guess what happened. my axie had nothing at all left of her gills but slowly they grew back. one side grew faster than the other and now that side is not as full looking so to say but she survived and her gills dont bother her at all. im sure your axie will be fine.

The axie i was speaking about at the beginning of the thread is now back at pet shop. I am gonna have her!! i need to speak to the man who is apparently the expert in the shop (lol) and bring her back to sort her out. Poor thing was kept in with mussels! she will be mine

Its par for the course IMO. Most aquatic stores can barely keep a licence because of the condition of their animals.
Look round most shops and you see poorly kept fish. Often sucked into the filter inlet where they die. Badshot Lea garden centre (Nr Farnhan) has shoals of fish infected with whitespot & fungus. People buying them have no idea, because they dont know what to look for.
I was once there and a lady said she wanted a certain fish from a shoal, clearly infected. While the staff member went to get a net, I told her that if she bought just one of those fish and put it in her pond, her pond would become infected and she would have to treat the pond (and I explained why). When the staff member returned, he was most put-out he'd lost a customer.
Apparently the store in question has been threatened with having their licence revoked because of the condition of the fish (a man who does the inspections told me, so its not hearsay).
I have many similar tales of stores in the south of England.

*New Owner also bad experience with pet shop-I NEED HELP!*

Have just bought 2 new axies-2 days ago, both 6mnths old-so shop tells me. 1 is a gorgoeus pink albino-very active, strong & healthy looking, excellent appetite but dominant. The other is a very sick & mutilated black one. the sick one is not actually the one we picked out but we didn't know until we got home that the pet shop got that one out for us!(I was tempted to go back but I wanted to make sure it was cared for-so we ended up keeping it!) So here I am hoping for guidance that I am on the right path to helping the poor thing!

To start with, it has white spots all over its body-I don't know if that's it's colouring or not, but from what I have read-it's not common and is more likely fungus?? I don't have dig cam-but may get pics soon...Secondly it has chunks out of all of it's gills-no where near as fluffy as the albino-only about a 1/3 remaining. A small chunk out of it's cheek, nearly a centimetre off the end of it's tail and it's only got half of a front leg (the other half was previously dangling but it fell off in it's first sea salt bath-which after research I felt it needed desperately!). Would it be in pain? Thirdly it won't eat-the albino was stealing it's food before I separated them-but still won't eat. Fourthly, it goes up for air atleast every 10 mins-MUCH more frequently than the albino-but that's prob bcoz of gill prob hey?!

I didn't know until half hr ago that u need the tank set up atleast 2 wks before u get them! We got home, rinsed out everything, filled tank, added water conditioner, set up filter-then put them in. What should I do? it's an 80L tank-now divided into 2. Albino seems quite content in new surroundings-so assume all is fine?

But wait...there is more-sorry!! Also, I didn't want to keep them separate-will it be ok to take away the barrier once the sick one is better and eating again? The albino isn't aggressive but it definately dominant over sick one. trial and error?

Lauren, there is no need to post you problem in 3 differnet threads.

As you can see I have already posted a answer to you problem.

Brett - I know there are problems with most fish stores, but I have worked in one, and feel the need to put up a bit of a defense here. Often times, the fish arrive with signs of disease already present. In large chain stores, management will often not let the staff quarantine the animals, and the must put them up for sale as soon as they get them.

When larger stores are built, in order to meet building codes, a plumber needs to be involved in construction of the filter system. That leads to compromises from the original design, such as intakes being too strong and sucking fish in, as well as other problem. Depending on the setup, this can mean a major renovation to fix, and I can tell you from experience that managemnt will not want to spend the money, regardless of what the staff say.

Granted, this is not always the case, and fish store don't always have what I'd call competent staff, but just keep in mind that it's not always their fault.

kim you sometimes come across as abit harsh. It is difficult at times to know where to post. i'm sure that lauren had the best intentions when posting her question but perhaps got a bit lost. easily done! I'm not criticising but an observation. we are all here for the same purpose afterall

well just to update everyone. Bertha has now arrived! very lively and hungry. She is settling in well and i'm hoping her gills will regenerate. Bertie not to impressed but hopefully will fall in lurvvve soon

Paula - I'm glad she is away from the pet shop. I hope she grows back her gills.

I also went to a pet shop and their axolotls looked anorexic compared to mine. And there were 2 little ones who both had no gills and I think the bigger axolotl's had been eating at them. I felt so bad and wanted to buy all of them. My boyfriend ended up buying one and now we are trying to fatten him up. His gills are already growing back but he has a fungus problem. I'm just glad he is away from that evil pet shop!

Good luck with Bertha, Paula! Hopefully her gills will grow back for you. Aximander's haven't (and I've had her for MONTHS!) but I think it's because she was an adult when I got her. The younger ones seem to be better at regenerating lost parts. Is she still eating well and settling in alright?

Having had closer investigation i think Bertha may be a Bob He is eating ALOT and very lively. I also believe his gills have started to grow back, although i may just be being optimistic. Thanks for your interest.