Fanning gills - is this normal?

I'm jsut wondering if it's normal behavior for my little fella to fan his gills for long periods of time. Tonight, I gave him a worm, and as soon as he was done eating he started doing the fanny thing with his gills. he's been doing this for about 3 hours now. Not being as active as normal, just sitting there flapping away.

Is there a connection between this and a big meal? I just fed him an earthworm for the first time last night, and another one tonight. Caught from my own garden.

My water params are good, ammonia: 0, nitrites: 0, nitrates: 0 (plants) and I did a water change yesterday. Temp is a little higher than the 68 it usually is, it looks like 70. I left the thermostat on all day accidentally!

Is this ever an indication of something wrong, or is it jsut something they like to do from time to time?

Re: Fanning gills - is this norma?

It's completely normal. Axolotls move their gills to pass water over the gill filaments for easier oxygen exchange. However, it's not normal if it's flicking it's gills about every 1-2 seconds, this usually indicates some kind of problem.

Re: Fanning gills - is this norma?

I've heard it's a sign of stress...and the heat could be causing a stressful environment...get the temp down (it should be more like 60-66 degrees), and see what happens.

Re: Fanning gills - is this norma?

soo weird, because when Sunny gets a big worm, he sits and flicks his gills. Otherwise he NEVER does it

Re: Fanning gills - is this norma?

Gill flicks accompanying feeding are normal. Sometimes you can even see bits of food peeking out from the gills!

It is only a worry when the axie is flicking the gills very rapidly for prolonged periods even when doing absolutely nothing.

Re: Fanning gills - is this norma?

I thought that is what angyles was asking. He's been flicking his gills for 3 hours...which isn't normal.

Re: Fanning gills - is this norma?

the flicking wasn't FAST so that's good. Sounds like it was caused by the giant worm, and maybe prolonged by the higher temp holding less oxygen. How long is 'normal' after eating?

Either way, he's back to normal this morning and the temp is back down to 68. I understand 60-66 is ideal, but I really have no idea how to accomplish that and my understanding was as long as you're under 72, it should be okay. Is this not correct?

Re: Fanning gills - is this norma?

72 is the extreme temperature for an axolotl to be healthy, anything above that can have a detrimental impact on your axie's health. To say that you're ok as long as you are under 72 is like saying people are ok as long as we are in temps under like 130 degrees. Yeah we will survive, but we will be stressed and not be at our prime. Animals should be kept at their ideal temps, not at their limits.

Yes Shizeric, that is a good point that i have been trying to put across as well in other posts. It is always best to keep our axies at a comfortable temperature to ensure best health rather than 'push' for the upper limits and risk stress and illness in the axies.

well good news. All this time, I was reading the thermometer a bit wrong. It is 66, not 68. So last night it was up to 68 instead of the usual 66.

I feel much better knowing that. Yes, it sounds like 62-64 would be MORE ideal, but hey, I'll take 66