I bought a poorly Axie

I went to a large pet shop today with my younger bro who was going to get some food for his snake and to my suprise noticed they had Axolotls for sale. However on closer inspection i noticed to my horror the conditions they were being kept in. There was about 7 or 8 axies in a 2ft fish tank which was crammed full of plants and a great big air stone in it. Nearly all of them had there gills pointing forward except one, A few had limbs missing and a few more looked like they have have problems with there gills.

I couldnt help myself and bought a black axie who i noticed has a problem with its front left leg, it looks twisted somehow, ive not seen him leave the floor though he will walk round the tank ok. The tank i put him in wasnt quite cycled but it was not far off i dont think and will be keeping a close eye on him and testing the water everyday til its complete. His gills are pointing forward now but he did seem to eat well. he ate all the bloodworm up, Not sure what i can do if anything about his leg, i guess i'll just have to wait and see.

I am toying with the idea of maybe getting another axie from that pet shop, my only concern is that i have had to settle for a 2.5ft fish tank and i have read that it might be too small to house 2 axolotls, yet my thinking is they will be in a lot better condition than they are in now. I hate to see those poor axolotls in those conditions.

Hello, I think it is not uncommon for a limb to grow back crocked etc, I would say if he is using it and looks comfortable this is the case but I dont know if there are signs of a broken leg etc, wait for a few more people to reply they may recommend putting him in the fridge

I also think a 2.5 tank is big enough for two of them, I don't think it is ideal but acceptable, again wait for other people to reply do not take my word for it

tomkeogh said:

Hello, I think it is not uncommon for a limb to grow back crocked etc, I would say if he is using it and looks comfortable this is the case but I dont know if there are signs of a broken leg etc, wait for a few more people to reply they may recommend putting him in the fridge

I also think a 2.5 tank is big enough for two of them, I don't think it is ideal but acceptable, again wait for other people to reply do not take my word for it

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He seems to walk ok, but his leg does not look right, im concerned its preventing him from swimming to the top as i have not seen him move off the floor yet.

They do spend most of there time on the floor, mine go to the surface and swim at night and when its dinner time, most of the time they just chill out on the floor they do not have to gulp air at the surface too often if that is what you are worried about , does he look like he is trying to swim up or is he just chilling?

He doesn't look like he struggling, he's been walking round the tank all day and now he's resting in his hidey hole. He can move his leg, it just looks like its at an akward angle compared to the rest. Im just panicking i guess.

I say 'he' but i havent a clue what sex the axie is yet lol. Its about 7 or 8cms in length

I do not know a great deal so I dont want to give bad advice but i do know limbs grow back strange on occasion, so if he is walking about happily enough I would say do not worry

I know how you feel I still panic every time I see something new, but you will soon learn his/her habits and character, I have only had mine three weeks and I always know were they are likely to be in the tank at certain times and they have really unique little things they do. they also know when dinner time is and come say hello in the morning before work.

Try not to panic though I caused my guys a lot of stress changing things in the tank etc, just let him/her settle in,

it sounds like they are only a couple months old so you will not be able to tell sex.

But again wait for some other people to give you advice

A wonky leg could just be that its grown back odd after an injury. If the skin isn't broken and he is walking on it I wouldn't worry.

You really need a 3 foot tank for two adult axolotls.

Mel

melfly said:

A wonky leg could just be that its grown back odd after an injury. If the skin isn't broken and he is walking on it I wouldn't worry.

You really need a 3 foot tank for two adult axolotls.

Mel

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Yeah, if i do get another i would have to get a bigger tank eventually, a 2.5ft tank might be ok while they are still small?? It has to be better for them than there current home.

Hi,

a 2.5ft tank will be fine for axies at this size. They are still young juvies. You only have to consider that all axies are nearly the same size.

Could you post a photo? So we can take a look at the axie and the leg.

Tina

I will try and get hold of a decent camera and see if i can get some pictures. Just been watching him for an hour and he does seem to be struggling a little bit now. Not sure if its gotten worse or that i didnt notice it properly. Its almost as if hes limping along the floor. Im convinced hes moving his bad leg, but the wife thinks its just floating. Its like he cant bring it forward, its at an awkward angle.

I have an adult with a 'deformed' leg. He is a good few years old and I have never seen him struggle or suffer in any way. Some axolotl do have these oddities as a genetic problem, so do not use for breeding purposes just in case.

What can I say. I went to the same pet shop and bought another Axolotl earlier today. They have added a few other Axolotls since I bought my Black Axie (perky) on friday as there are now 9 axolotls in the tank. After a lot of thinking i decided to get another axie and i picked out this time one of the healthier looking ones, a lovely white/pinkish axie (pinky). I tell you i was absolutley horrified when the assistant got my axie. In the tank (which is only 2ft) it is crammed full of plants with a big log of some description. There was no walking space at all in there. He just plunged right in there pushing aside the plants scaring the axies half to death and knocked over the log which had axies underneath it. I couldn't actually bear to look to see if any got caught i just wanted out the shop asap.

Anyway, i know some of you advised me not to get a second and i did think it over but i thought 2 axies in a 2.5ft tank would be better than 9 in a 2ft tank. My 1st big mistake was that i failed to notice that pinky is a little larger than perky. When i was looking at him at the pet shop i thought they looked the same length, but when I saw them both together in the tank the size difference is obvious. Pinky has nipped at perky a few times already so I guess i should have listened to the advice. I now feel sorry for perky who i think has a poorly leg in some way and his gills are permanently forward since i had him.

I have a small fish tank which is barely big enough (45 cms in length) for an axie, but i will clean it out and but perky in there as he is smallest until I can get a bigger tank so I can house them both together when perky has grown a little.

You should put the other one in the new tank it was perkys to start with!, you are just rewarding territorial behaviour,

I think the guide is two feet for one axolotl, you could get two tanks of 60cm for less then a hundred, a lot cheaper then a huge tank

Are the tanks cycled? what temperature are they?

I think the other tank would be too small for pinky. Yes the tank has fully cycled now. The temperature at the moment is 19°C. I would rather keep perky in the bigger tank but i just think it would be better to have the smaller axie in the smaller tank.

I was holding out for a 3ft tank at a reasonable price but i grew impatient and picked up the 2.5ft instead of ebay.

edit: i forgot to add the small tank is not cycled though

Frankly, you may want to reconsider getting another animal at that store. Your intentions are pure and you're sweet to want to help them critters, but what you're basically doing right now is, tell the shop owner that his sales are going well and that he can order more to cram in there in those bad living conditions. If he can't sell them, he won't order new ones.

As for the axolotl being lazy and stuck to the ground, that's quite normal They also tend to hold their legs in twisted ways that don't look right but when you catch a glimpse of an axolotl marching over the sand, you'll see that he's moving well (though not very gracefully).

Thanks. He seems to be doing fine now. He has quite a character. I think i was just over panicking, Its amazing how alert they can be. Whenever i go into the room he will swim right to the glass and follow my movements. Also loves his earthworms and regularly swims upto to catch the worms before i even stick my hand in.

As for the pet shop, i reached the same conclusion myself, if i was a bit more outgoing i would have said something, but thats not me.

Sadly this is what im seeing around ym town aswell. My first axie is a black one that lived in a common tank, so his tail and gills seem to have been eaten, and the white axie i got has a fungus on its lip (that is slowly going after being treated). Its a shame that pet shops keep them like this. The shop with the Black axie is a very good shop just seems they dont know how to care fully for an azie.

I witnessed a similar situation today which was quite upsetting,
the petshop i went to had just got a batch of 5 in that were all sorts of sizes, from 14 go 18cm roughly, the sad thing was that wherever they had came from mustn't have had them in good conditions, all of them had white patches from head to tail and all over there gills as well, limbs were missing, 2 of them had only half a tail and another 2 only had gills on one side, not even one was healthy
It seems to me like the previous owner was a breeder and had them purely for breeding and didn't give a **** about em.

The second shop i visited after that had two beautiful gold speckled juvies, (i was after an adult unfortunately) they were healthy but because there was only a couple of tanks for all there fish they had them in with bristlenose catfish (suckers), i told her they shouldn't be with the axies but they didnt care.
To me this is cruelty to animals,(even if there not there that long) petshop owners are careless and only in it for the money obviously, same as some breeders.