Question: Not swimming up for air?

Okay guys, so here's the deal, some of you may know me from the past posting on her and always enjoying having you help me... but since Axie and Axol died in the Summer, there hasn't really been any point to posting here , I still read people's posts but don't post myself. So here's the question, as some of you may know, I've recently picked up two golden albino axies from Big Al's who got some in from Gavin Hunter whom is also in this forum... Well they died due to impaction. The guy at the petstore didn't take ALL of the pebbles out, there was a couple (around 10-15) pebbles in there and my luck... the lotls i got swallowed some, will post pics of the rocks. So I emailed them and told them what happened and even though they said "no guarantee" they felt bad, so they replaced them with 2 more golden albino lotls. Luckily so far they don't look impacted at all although the other 2 that died , you could see the rocks kind of 'bulging' out of they're stomach. WELL ANYWAYS, as I wanted to ask, I haven't seen my little guys go up for air, they're about 1 and a half to two inches. Is this ok? They're eating frozen bloodworms. Lemme know guys, will post pics of the 2 that died and then the rocks that I found in they're stomachs and then I'll post pics of the 2 that are the replacements!

The Impacted ones that died....:
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee470/Romankid789/HNI_0020.jpg
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee470/Romankid789/HNI_0019.jpg
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee470/Romankid789/HNI_0021.jpg

The Healthy looking replacements:
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee470/Romankid789/HNI_0022.jpg
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee470/Romankid789/HNI_0023.jpg

Lemme know guys.

Michael - as long as you have sufficient aeration in the tank then it's really not a problem. They have those gorgeous gills attached to their heads so have a perfectly adequate form of breathing. Do make sure they have clean water, but your set up looks great. What cute axies!

xC

Thanks xoxo Will post full pics of their setups It's a 10 gallon with sand and a giant hide and decently sized plant

Here's a full pic of they're setup

Gorgeous! That looks like a lovely home for them. Is that a light on the top? There's mixed views on these forums about lights, but I do think that they add quite a bit to the temperature, and obviously we like to keep the temp down low for these fridge-loving beasts.

Other than that, what a nice tank!

xC

It's florescent , and it has a cover on it, it's like a hood. The current temp is 18 degrees celcius

It's actually possible, thinking about it, if the light is quite strong, it might prevent them from coming to the top to take air and keep them using their gills at the bottom.

Also, I meant to say before - when they are as small as yours, their lungs arent fully developed yet. No lungs mean they don't need air in them, so they are just fine with their gills

xC

They don't even swim up when the light is off... But I guess your right about the last part, as they are young, about 1 and a half to 2 inches.

Axolotls are primarly nocturnal creatures. Keeping it on a little bit each day wouldn't be a big biff, but too much exposure could stress them out.

Out of the two I have now my girly likes to swim and gulp air, and my big guy has never really been into it. He swims more now and will go for air more now, so he can follow bubbles (girl) around a bit.
He has always preferred trolling around on the floor of the tank.

One of the things that I have started to do, and seem to be having a bit of success with, is only putting the light on before I feed them, then they come out to see what I'm delivering, and I can use the light to give them and there tank a good inspection while it's on.

I don' think it should be a issue.

even with a airstone going in my axie tank, my melanoid still swims up frequently for air during his "active" part of the day (usually in the evening) but when it's resting it just sits on the bottom and every now and then flicks its gills.

my golden axie takes in air, but not as much as my other one does, and again only in it's active part of the day.

I think it has a lot to do with the animal itself.

as for lighting, unless you have plants, there is no need for it.

I only have a dim LED lamp over my axie tank and it's only ever on when I'm at home.

Yeah am just confirming - they are too small to come for air as they don't have full amphibious lungs yet.
They are happily breathing through their gills and will eventually start to swim up every so often.
Please don't worry about it

xC

Thanks for the reassurance guys.

Also, they are eating about 3-5 blood worms each, is that enough to fill them? They don't take anymore then that.

That sounds about right, given the temperature and size, sounds like your doing a great job!

Thanks! But remember, I have owned two adults before, just didn't get them when they were this small when i got my other ones, they were 4 times the size of these guys.