Question: New Axolotl

Hi guys, I am new to keeping axolotls. I was recently (yesterday afternoon, really) gifted a very pretty axie (named him George Michael, after Michael Ciera's character in the tv series Arrested Development), and I think he's a leucistic? with bits of brown spots on his head and along his dorsal? is that right?

I've been reading up on tank cycling and substrates and feeding, and I think I have it under control, maybe, hopefully. Been keeping tabs on the pH and nitrate/nitrite levels and things like that. The really cute thing about having fine sand in his tank is that when I get up in the morning to say hello to him, I see evidence of his night adventures in the little footprints he left all over the sand!

Anyway, I really should get to the point. He has very little gills, and in most of the photos I've seen on this website, the axies have long gills. Is this just because he's young (he's just shy of 10cm)? or is it because they might've been nibbled on by tank mates in his previous home?

Also, along his body/abdomen area, the left side is a darker shade (kind of dark blue-ish) than the right side, is that just his organs, or his colouration, or something bad?

The first and only time I tried to feed him (only just got him yesterday afternoon), I used my fingers, rather than tweezers or a turkey baster. I held a couple of blood worms and approaced his face. At first he'd freak out and swim to the other side of the tank, but when I waved it right up against his mouth a second time, he ate it really... excitedly, almost. I managed to feed him about 10 blood worms, with him freaking out about my hand 3 times during the feeding. I didn't want to stress him out too much, so after the 10-ish blood worms I stopped, and he was happy walking around the tank again.

Will he eventually get used to my hand? Is there a gentler way for me to hand feed him (maybe he didn't get hand fed in his previous home, so he's not used to hands?)?

Sorry this is a bit long-winded, hopefully I can get these questions answered :happy:

Thanks heaps!

Interesting color. I wanted to call him wild type but the sides of his tail body and tip of nose appear very light like a leucistic. His gills look as if they have been snacked on to me, don't worry in a few weeks time they will be looking a lot better. As for the feeding by hand just keep doing it and he will get use to it and not freak out.

The prints in the sand are very cool, I have noticed that in my tank on many occasions and I still love it.

Just keep him cool, clean water, and well fed and he will explode in size.

Good luck.

thanks so much for replying he's a fast learner; after two days of hand-feeding, he associated my hand with food, so every time i stick my hand in, he'd follow my hand around the tank! quite fun, but then he gets in the way of my siphoning duties lol...

i took some better photos of him, these are more to his true colours. yeah, i thought he was leucistic too from what i read, but he had those brown spots on his head and along his dorsal so i'm not sure.

he is lovely! And I love the name - - we love Arrested Development (I will admit that Buster is by far my favorite character!)