Hello all,
This is my first post here and I am hoping to get some help that we desperately need. In January, we bought 2 baby axolotls. I am more into the cute and furry pets, but my husband loved them and, according to the breeder, they seemed to be right up our alley. The breeder told us that the water only needed to be changed once a week, no filtration was needed, and they were extremely low maintenance. My husband is an activated army reservist and is only home on weekends. According to what the breeder said, that seemed perfect so that he could tend to them when he was home and I could stick to tending to the furry babies around the house.
Of course, now we are kicking ourselves in the head. My husband feels awful because he felt like he should have done his homework on them more instead of blindly believing the breeder. I feel bad because I sort of washed my hands of them all this time without knowing that they needed more help than they were getting. We were using an unfiltered tank and only doing water changes once a week. That is, of course, until my husband noticed that one of them was changing. He starting doing some research and now we are worried that it is morphing. The other one looks to be doing great, but the changing one has no frilly gills anymore. Its eyes seem to be more bulged out as well.
I am going to try to upload a few photos with this post. As I am sure a lot of you can relate to, it’s incredibly difficult to get good photos of these guys. If you think it would help if I obtained some photos that are more clear, I can try again tonight.
Currently, I have the sick axie in my bedroom (the coldest room in the house) in a small carrier tank so keep him extra cool and in a dark room. We decided last night to take him out of the 10 gallon tank he shared with the other axie and just do daily partial changes on his water. We were afraid that if he is morphing, we didn't want to risk him drowning so we made the water shallow. Of course, he has enough water to be completely submersed at all times. However, he is swimming up to the top and keeping his head at the top of the water a lot. (I hope that makes sense)
I would really appreciate any advice that you all can give me. I am totally willing to throw my amphibian reluctance out the window and do whatever has to be done to help this little guy out. If he is morphing, I need to know what kind of habitat I should put him in during this. If you think it will help, I am more than willing to clear out some fridge space for him. I am just not sure what will really benefit him right now. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions you all may have!
This is my first post here and I am hoping to get some help that we desperately need. In January, we bought 2 baby axolotls. I am more into the cute and furry pets, but my husband loved them and, according to the breeder, they seemed to be right up our alley. The breeder told us that the water only needed to be changed once a week, no filtration was needed, and they were extremely low maintenance. My husband is an activated army reservist and is only home on weekends. According to what the breeder said, that seemed perfect so that he could tend to them when he was home and I could stick to tending to the furry babies around the house.
Of course, now we are kicking ourselves in the head. My husband feels awful because he felt like he should have done his homework on them more instead of blindly believing the breeder. I feel bad because I sort of washed my hands of them all this time without knowing that they needed more help than they were getting. We were using an unfiltered tank and only doing water changes once a week. That is, of course, until my husband noticed that one of them was changing. He starting doing some research and now we are worried that it is morphing. The other one looks to be doing great, but the changing one has no frilly gills anymore. Its eyes seem to be more bulged out as well.
I am going to try to upload a few photos with this post. As I am sure a lot of you can relate to, it’s incredibly difficult to get good photos of these guys. If you think it would help if I obtained some photos that are more clear, I can try again tonight.
Currently, I have the sick axie in my bedroom (the coldest room in the house) in a small carrier tank so keep him extra cool and in a dark room. We decided last night to take him out of the 10 gallon tank he shared with the other axie and just do daily partial changes on his water. We were afraid that if he is morphing, we didn't want to risk him drowning so we made the water shallow. Of course, he has enough water to be completely submersed at all times. However, he is swimming up to the top and keeping his head at the top of the water a lot. (I hope that makes sense)
I would really appreciate any advice that you all can give me. I am totally willing to throw my amphibian reluctance out the window and do whatever has to be done to help this little guy out. If he is morphing, I need to know what kind of habitat I should put him in during this. If you think it will help, I am more than willing to clear out some fridge space for him. I am just not sure what will really benefit him right now. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions you all may have!