Question: My Axolotl's feathers

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Bessie

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I Love Axolotls
I recently bought my first Axolotl that I'm guessing is a female (she doesn't have that 'bump' around her hind legs). She's a Leuistic, I don't know her age but she's around 4" in length and she has black toe tips. My only worry is is that her gill 'feathers' aren't very visible and, if I do catch a small glimpse of one, it's deffinately not pink - none of them are.
Is this a problem that I should be worrying about?
Thanks.
 
It can be that the place you got it from didn't keep the axie in a suited tank. This can damage the animal's gills.
If there are fist in the tank they could've nibbled on them for example.
Is the axie still flicking the gills, or is it gasping for air on the surface?


With 4" the animal is quite young, and sexing could be difficult.
 
There wasn't any fish in the tank with her. She is still flicking her gills quite happily. Will the pink ever appear?? Thanks.
 
Hi Bessie,

If you keep the tank conditions ideal (good parameters and temperature) and keep up with a balanced nutrition, the gills will regenerate in no time.

On another note, your axie is probably still too young to sex accurately.

Cheers.
 
Thanks for your help. Also, would anybody be able to write me a 'food diary'. I want my baby to be super healthy. At the moment, she is being fed brine shrimp.

Thanks for informing me about sexing, when can I tell what gender 'she' is?

Thankyou! :) I'm very grateful.
 
What do you mean by a food diary?
If she's 4" long she can have earthworms, these are one of the best foods to feed your little one. What kind of brine shrimp are you feeding her? Live, dried or frozen? Brine shrimp are fine for larvae, but I think you would need an awful lot to fill up a 4" lotl!

At her age I would be feeding at least every couple of days, 2 or 3 earthworms each time would be about right I think. You can also feed bloodworms or blackworms, but again you will need a lot of these to fill up her tummy and they're messier than earthworms.

As far as sexing your little one, you would need to wait at the minimum a couple more months and some axolotls are hard to sex until they're 12-18 months!
 
Kerry1968 said:
What do you mean by a food diary?
If she's 4" long she can have earthworms, these are one of the best foods to feed your little one. What kind of brine shrimp are you feeding her? Live, dried or frozen? Brine shrimp are fine for larvae, but I think you would need an awful lot to fill up a 4" lotl!

At her age I would be feeding at least every couple of days, 2 or 3 earthworms each time would be about right I think. You can also feed bloodworms or blackworms, but again you will need a lot of these to fill up her tummy and they're messier than earthworms.

As far as sexing your little one, you would need to wait at the minimum a couple more months and some axolotls are hard to sex until they're 12-18 months!
Click to expand...


Wow, thankyou.
I was feeding my Axie live Brine Shrimp. I have some worms on the way that I bought off a website for Herps. How old do you think my Axolotl is a 4"? Thanks. :proud:
 
At that size I would guess 3-4 months-ish. I'm not really sure, someone might be able to give you a better estimate.
 
Oh right, does this mean that the Axie's black toes are a bad sign?
 
No not at all, that is just one sign of the axies maturity, but it doesn't mean that it is sexually mature.
 
Thankyou, you have really helped a lot! :)
 
my axolotlhas like the same problem but i can see his gills they are a very very dark red you can even say that they look black and im worried about that and it wont stop sheding its coat of mukusy stuff im just wondering if some one can help
 
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