What is this animal?

After showing off my axolotls to someone recently, i was asked if they were the same animal that were sold at a certain pet shop here in town. This pet shop specialized in exotic pets (though not terribly exotic since the more known exotic pet shop in town even sells monkeys and kinkajou) They did have axolotls there, but were so poorly kept. Even my brother who knows nothing about them could tell right away that they were in bad shape. All of the animals there were. I won't get into details right now unless someone is interested, my point in making this is because I saw a weird animal there that I don't know what it was, never seen anything like it and am still just bewildered at the sight of it. I didn't ask an employee because none ever came and talked to me, except for a greeting as they walked past me to get some supplies. When I asked an employee for some help, mainly to see what he knew about axolotls, I waited around for 10 minutes before concluding, from the way they're kept, that he knows nothing and left.

Anyway, the animal's head was like an axolotl, had the frill and everything. It had front feet, like an axolotl as well, but the rest of the body was long. It looked like a mix of an axolotl and an eel. It was a very dark colour, maybe dark brown or black. I can't describe the tail because it was missing a portion of it's body, like it was bitten off by something. From what I saw, it didn't have back feet, but I can't conclude that since it was missing some of the back end. The body was really long though, I'd say a good foot and half. It was in a tank by itself and there were no ornaments or gravel or anything. Just the animal in some water. Would anyone have any idea what this animal is?

I would consider rescuing it if I knew more about it. I honestly feel like I couldn't describe it anymore in depth. I'm wondering if it was some amphibious snake or something. I could get a picture of it. I'd just hate to have to go back there, i was honestly sick to my stomach by the time I left from the neglect the employees have for the animals.

If that animal has an elongated body and no hind limbs, that is a siren: http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/species.shtml (family Sirenidae); http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Sirenidae.shtml

Chamaeleo said:

If that animal has an elongated body and no hind limbs, that is a siren: http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/species.shtml (family Sirenidae); http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Sirenidae.shtml

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Those links didn't work, but I Googled it. That's it! Such a strange animal.

If I had the means, i would save all animals ever, but I don't think I'll be getting him. I'm a little creeped out at the length it is and can get and am not willing to commit to an animal I'm not crazy about for 14+ years like this.

Hope someone does have a heart for him though. Poor thing really was missing a very large portion of it's tail.

I respect and appreciate your wanting to help this animal, but I'd like to remind people that buying poorly-kept animals of any species from a pet store isn't "rescuing" it. As hard as it is and as bad as it feels to walk away from an animal in need, when you buy that animal the neglect and sometimes outright mistreatment of the animal becomes profitable for the store. If I had ten axolotls on gravel in a 75 degree tank and you bought them all, regardless of what you've said to me or what I know about proper care for these animals I've made a tremendous profit. So what will I do? Restock my tank with another ten axolotls. The more animals people "rescue" the more money I make, so I have no incentive to operate any differently.
The best thing to do is to try to educate the staff or lodge a complaint with management. I find the majority of mistakes in the care of exotics in pet stores comes from a genuine lack of knowledge, not from malicious intent or laziness. From a business standpoint, it's not in the store's best interest to kill off their merchandise before they can sell it, and if they know people are refusing to shop there because of the low standards of care then they may change their tune. Again, I respect your noble intentions, but I wanted to remind people that the noblest of intentions can occasionally inadvertently do more damage than good.

That's a good point. That's actually part of the reason I decided against getting it. I had read reviews about this store where people bought an animal, the animal died shortly after and the store didn't give any refunds and refused to take any responsibility for the dead animal.

One person's review was about how they bought some sort of lizard, the lizard had a virus and soon died. When he called to warn them of the virus, they blamed it all on the owner and told him he just didn't know how to take of it. The man says he has 3 of these lizards and has owned them for years. Apparently, he bought the lizard because they were on sale. Most likely because it had a virus...

There were a few others that I read about that had to do with a dead animal that they refused to refund. The one I found most disturbing was about how the owner of the store was smoking inside of the store and was purposely ashing his cigarette in the cricket bin. To be honest, I sell axolotls and they were my competition, so they can continue whatever they do. Hopefully get shut down for it.

Oh, and I do want to point out, that in this case, lack of knowledge wasn't the only contributor. It really was laziness. Many of the reptile tanks had swarms of bugs in it and the rodent tanks were covered in poo. There were several dead axolotls in the tanks I looked at, some looked to be decaying.