Axolotl has no gills

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cuban jey

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hi everyone, i went to one of my lfs tuesday for dog food and during my routine quick walk by/scan of ther tanks i saw a skinny juvie lotl (roughly 4in). swimming around with their koi stock. i called the worker over and asked him about and he said someone put a order for him last week but still hasn't showed up to buy it. so me feeling terrible for this lil guy and knowing i have a empty 10gl full and running at home in my fishroom i told the worker ill take it. while bringing him home and checking him out i noticed his gills are missing with just the nubs left. he happily ate pretty much a whole bloodworm cube and seems to be enjoying his quiet new home without giant koi chasing him around. i added two tblspn of aquarium salt to the tank and have a hang on filter at its slowest setting plus a airstone in the other corner and gave him some driftwood to hide around in. im going tomorrow to buy some earthworms, anything else i should do?
 
Poor little guy, the koi probably bit off his pretty gills. :/ The pet store definitely should NOT have been keeping him in there ! How awful !

You can only just monitor and watch out for fungus at this point. Does everything else look okay ?

The gills should grow back, but they may not, or may grow back deformed (happened to one of my axolotls gills). I'd make sure he has easy access to the surface, since he'll probably be popping up for breaths of air more than if he had his gills. :)
 
Aw, I can't add anymore useful advice than what Chirple has said, but I'm so glad you saved him. Poor little guy!!!
 
thanks for the replies ;) and yeah hes been having to come up for air pretty regularly. he looks pretty good aside from being starved and no gills, although he has a couple little white marks on his head and right shoulder blade. im hoping theyre just scratches and that the salt will help clear it up. *edit* and yeah the lfs guy said he wasnt eating much of the flake food and floating pellets he was feeding the tank. and if it died on me he'd just order me another one while shrugging his shoulders as if he was talking about a damn filter or something . its amazing how ppl have such disregard for animals lives. i was like >_< wtf!
 
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It always makes me happy to hear of Axie rescues and the stern talking to's people give to unknowledgeable lfs workers. It's a tragedy, but I think Caudata does a lot of good in trying to correct it.

Kudos, mate! Keep us updated, and some pictures would be nice :)
 
Can you post a photo? Any chance it's a tiger salamander larva and not an axolotl?
 
heres a photo of him. sorry its so dark as i have no light on his tank. *edit* ok i managed to coax him into some better pics
 

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I'm not an expert (yet!), but given that the tail ridge stops at the neck and the coloring is fairly uniform, I think this just might be a tiger salamander. I'd give it a way to climb out of the water just in case.

Tanya
 
It looks kind of skinny. It does look like it could be a tiger salamander. I'd give it shallow water and something to climb out on. Either way it needs to be nursed back to health. Don't overfeed. To much food in the digestive system of an underfed salamander can overload it's digestive system. That sounds odd but it is true.
 
Hi there Cuban Jey :happy: Whether it turns out to be a salamander or an Axie, you did a great job to rescue it. :D Best of luck for the future !! ;)
 
My back is sore and I am miserable. I mean this in a nice way. An AXOLOTL is a SALAMANDER.








Peace.
 
yeah ive been feeding him little chunks of earthworm through out the day. so were leaning toward that hes a juvie tiger then?
 
hey guys so can i get a proper i.d. on this little fellow ;)
 
I'm not sure anyone can give you a 100% accurate ID from a few photos, but I would operate under the assumption that it's a tiger salamander. Make sure you give it a way to climb out of the water as it morphs so it doesn't drown.
 
Tiger salamander. It's probably going to undergo metamorphosis soon. Have a read through this article and this caresheet on tigers.
 
cool. thanks everyone for your help. ill update his/her progress in a couple weeks
 
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