Illness/Sickness: Young Axolotl tiny gills, gulping for air, floating.

I just recently bough an Axolotl from the vet store and brought him home. When I bought him he had only little nubs where his gills should have been. I thought this was normal because he's a young and about 5 inches long. But I brought him home and he's always gulping for air and ends up making himself float His tank had good ammonia control, a filter with a mixture of zeolite and carbon. I'm currently using a cycle with him in the tank, so that the filter grows the necessary bacteria. He has an air stone running and shouldn't have to go up so much. On top of this, he hasn't eaten any food since I bought him and I starting to get worried The temperature is at a constant 23 degrees celcius. What can I do to help him?!

It's not normal for axolotls to have just nubs. That's a sign of either ammonia, fungus, or tank-mates eating away his gills. Gulping air is his way of compensating for a lack of oxygen exchange in his gills.

Zeolite and carbon aren't really the best. I distrust zeolite, and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that carbon shouldn't be used with amphibians. I would remove both of these and cycle your tank the old-fashioned way: with a good quality test kit for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, and lots of water changes.

You should keep the tank as cool as possible. 23c is the highest you should let the tank get. When possible, it's best to keep them below 20c. You'll find that a lot of our Aussie members use a chiller.

If he's floating only when he gulps air, and then burps out the bubble and sinks, the floating isn't usually a problem. If he's floating constantly and cannot get to the bottom of the tank, then you should lower the water level until his feet touch the ground.

I've used carbon for my axolotls all the time and nothings wrong with them.

He seemed all right for a while, then out of nowhere he just died. After I spent so much money and too so many precautions, he just died. I'm certainly taking it up with the pet store, because they could be the reason he died.

R.I.P. D: Definitely consult the petstore, I recently got two gold albino axies and they both died due to the store having them on gravel and they died due to impaction from that gravel. After emailing them , even though they said no guarantee they replaced them with 2 new ones and they're doing amazingly well!

That is really sad!

I was just about to post a similar question about a female juvenile I have, displaying the same problems also brought from a pet shop...

RIP :-(

Hi Jeffery;

I know exactly what your going through.. My little Freckles died this morning too.. Bloody Pet shops!
Its really hard when you spend so much time caring, feeding, staying up all night with them when they are sick, and then for them to die. You feel so helpless, and definitely blame yourself, well I do.. Could we have done something more, who knows.. I feel your pain.. :-(
But don't give up.. They are so rewarding.. And such beautiful creatures..

Sorry to hear about both your losses

Axolotls that go to pet stores seem to almost always be given terrible treatment and are more often than not housed on gravel in overcrowded tanks that are far too warm.
The best thing to do is not buy your axolotls from pet stores! It might be tempting because you feel like you're saving them (and in the past I have given in and saved several from pet stores, heh) but that will just mean the pet store will then stock more of them and keep them the same way.

Also, if you're bringing an axie home from a pet store and it's in bad condition already then cycling a tank with the axie is probably not doing it any favours D:

Not exactly the right place but: if you guys are in Sydney I currently have two golden juveniles available that are very strong and healthy! PM me for more info if you'd like.

I agree completely regarding the comments on pet shops.

In fact, after my little Freckles died I decided to go to the pet shop where I brought her from, as she was sick from the moment I brought her home.

And this is what I found at their shop. Have a look at this poor little axie that was there.
Plus some of the babies I sold them look really skinny and pale...

I think I should report them, but I'm not sure what the right thing to do is?

They offered to order me a new one, NO WAY!

Francesca said:

I agree completely regarding the comments on pet shops.

In fact, after my little Freckles died I decided to go to the pet shop where I brought her from, as she was sick from the moment I brought her home.

And this is what I found at their shop. Have a look at this poor little axie that was there.
Plus some of the babies I sold them look really skinny and pale...

I think I should report them, but I'm not sure what the right thing to do is?

They offered to order me a new one, NO WAY!

Click to expand...

Poor thing :'(! Maybe you should inform them on how to take care of a sick Axie with Salt baths.