Illness/Sickness: Curley Gills!

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Moomin

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HIII!
My axolotl Moomin's gills hae been pointing forward for quite some time nowand are a little pale even after he eats. I'm usually pretty good with illness but i can't for the life of me work out why his gills are doing that.

Water temp is: 18 degrees C
Water quality is fine
Filters not strong theres not much current.
Plenty oxygen in the water
He's still eatting
No other inhabitants

However he's a little more sluggish than usual seems to be always sitting under his tree root thing.

All i can think is the light is too bright (its a daylight bulb) or maybe the tank is too small for him now?

His tanks bout 4ft and he's almost 30cms. Do you think i should take some of the objects out while i can't get him a bigger tank?
 
Sometimes axolotls get stressed over any water flow at all, what kind of filter do you have? I don't think you need a daylight bulb for your axie (unless it's just the light of the room) A four foot tank is fine for a fully grown axolotl :)

I'm not sure what else it could be, it might be a hidden trouble in your filter or light :) If you have a photo I suppose that could be helpful as well :eek:
 
Heheh its a Fulval 4. Very old but still good i keep it very clean and steile.
Here's a photo. Sorry about the angle hes being anti social haha!
curleygills.jpg

His tank is due a service lol!
 
Oh, yes. Definitely curly gills there :p I've investigated your filter and it's very similar to one I used to use.. you might want to invest in a waterfall-type filter such as the AquaOne Clear View-

aqua1clearview.jpg


(Of course I'm being bias because this is the filter I have! :eek:) But it works very nicely and creates very little flow while still keeping my tank nice and clean.
However if you don't have the right budget to be out buying new filters- you might want to direct the flow of your Fluval filter into the wall of the tank, so less movement comes directly from the flow. Or else you could put rocks in front of the flow to slow it down.

On another note, it might not be the water flow stressing your axolotl - has there been any recent changes to the tank or anything that might have made him/her uncomfortable?
 
Nothing that i can think of. He's in a quiet room of the house too. He's never been very fussy tho lol hes quite a hardy axie:)

I think i miht try your waterfall filter :D For now i'll get one of my lower powered filters and put that in for a bit till i get paid ]^_____^[

Moomin says thanks :D
 
AHHH i might have found what he's stressing about. I had a think back and i have a magnet tank cleaner in there. My mates keep playing with it and sometimes it slaps against the tank glass. That could definatly be stressing him. I'm gonna try taking that out.
 
When you say you keep your filter clean and sterile could you explain what you mean by that?
A filter doesn't have to be clean and sterile to work, it needs to be full of healthy bacteria.
 
The filter itself is very clean. The sponge inside stays a little dirty :)
 
BTW is it due to Moomins age that his gills arn't as long and fluffy? They used to be really long bright flffy gills but they're less so now.

If not is there anyway i could get them back to the way they we're?
 
The fluffyness of gills (I hope fluffyness is a word) is due to the oxygen in the water. The gills themselves will filter out the oxygen in the water, so if there isn't a lot of oxygen, more gills are grown to maximize the amount of oxygen taken in- and if there isn't a lot of oxygen, the gills will shrink slighty as they are not needed.

LONG gills however is a genetic trait.
 
He used to have them. They kinda just shortedned over night. Done a water change anyway n goin to go buy a air stone. See if that helps :D
 
Well!

I bought an airstone and a new house from moomin. He appears happier. Still waiting for the gills to improove tho :(
 
An airstone will actually make the gills smaller. With an airstone, there is more air circulating in the tank, which means the axolotl will require less gill area to facilitate gas exchange.

Usually, once an axolotl's gills shrink, it's fairly permenant. They may get a little fluffier with less oxygen in the water, but they don't get longer.
 
I figured i'd rather have him with small gills and planty oxygen :D

Tar
x
 
Just out of interest how long might it take for moomin gills to uncurl after all the changes?
 
Never mind lol. They seem to be straightening out! Also they' not as short as i thought. I think it was an illusion by the curleyness:p

Now hopefully his missing fluffies grow back!
 
Kaysie said:
Usually, once an axolotl's gills shrink, it's fairly permenant. They may get a little fluffier with less oxygen in the water, but they don't get longer.
Click to expand...

Could that be because the water quality hasn't changed rather than it being a permanant degenerative(?) effect? Do their gill stalks shorten and lengthen to adjust to oxygen levels? What would be the reason(s) they get long or short? I recieved a rather neglected axolotl that spent most of it's time outside the water than in it and the stalks were reduced to stumps. I wasn't sure how it was going to respond but I slowly introduced it into the correct aquatic environment and its stalks, figuratively speaking, exploded. They grew very long and fluffed up dramatically and then adjusted to a 'normal' state after some time. I probably should have taken pictures of this happening at the time but I thought this was probably just a normal part of an axolotl adapting to this particular change of environment. Do their gills reflect what the waters oxygen condition is like? Another question, If the gills curl, could it be the effect of shrinking rather than stress?
 
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