Darrel the axolotl acts strange.

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Skello

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hey guys
I just got myself a new axie about 4 days ago, and hes a rather peculiar specimen, he seems to spend half of his time almost out of the water, and i dont mean that he thrashes around in discomfort, i mean that he actually climbs ontop of a rock in his tank and just sits out of the water and then very ungracefully gets back in the water. And sometimes it seems like he floats but then the rest of the time he will just burp then sink. I caught a a video of him on his rock in an iso tank to make sure hes safe, doing the usual quarantine.

Darrel the axolotl is clumsy - YouTube

Ill upload a pic when i get home. Ive also noticed that he no longer has huge fluffy gills and almost no tail fin. Ive checked, water quality, flow, temps, all fine, :s
 
image.jpg i find him like this almost 4/5 times a day.
 
image.jpg this is what hes like after he burps, however, his gills are half the size they were. ??
 
What are the water parameters? Temperature? And how long did you have him before he started going out of the water?
 
Firstly, the video only shows him out of the water trying to get in. Secondly, why would you have a land area in an axolotl's set up?
Looks to me like you are trying to morph him. Perhaps I'm wrong?

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I also agree with wandering, I see no point in having dry space in an axolotl tank.
 
The dry space isnt intentional, because i dont trust the fugal protocols of pet shops, i quarantine all new animals for 2 weeks prior to new housing, the reasonwhy the water level is low enough for that dry space is because i ran out of space and had to convert an old gecko terrarium, so any higher and the thing would leak. Why would i wanna morph? It shortens their life span, and is cruel and deadly. Not to mention thier beauty is their neotony. Water temp is about 15, and ph is 7.3, i took a sample to the pet store and they said the ammonia and nitrates were fine.
Hes been climbing out of water for as long as theyve known, theyve actually found him on the floor a few times
 
To qoute the pet store, "we had to move the filter lower because he had a habit of flimbing on and out" its why im so bamboozled, ive had axies before, ive had a host of other animals, but none have acted so peculiar to their types. Well i once had a gecko that ive you whistled it would squeak
 
Glad I was wrong. A quick Google brought up a thread that suggested that because salamanders are not allowed in Australia, there have been efforts to breed those axolotls (or sneaked in hybrids?) that might have a tendency to morph under favourable conditions. So there may be a higher frequency of morphable axolotls there that in other countries? Maybe someone who actually knows something about this might chip in?

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Well he eats both bloodworms and crickets, hes young too only 5 months. But ur comment does sound familiar, i have a category 3 herpetofauna keepers license atm, in west australia reptile and amphibian pets are highly regulated. A zoology major friend actually sent me here cause she was puzzled too.
 
What an odd little chap you have.
I wonder if he is trying to morph. From what I understand a morphing axolotl goes thorugh a few changes before leaving the water, gill shrinking, tail fin disappearing, legs become more muscular and the eyes appear more prominent.
The gill and tail shrinking could indicate this. It may be worth lowering the water further and keep a close eye on any other physical changes. In the mean time I would also perhaps offer food daily, maybe some earthworms. Please do keep us updated with this little guy :happy:
 
It sounds weird saying this, but I watched the video a couple times and it almost looks like he has some sort of neurological disorder. Are his movements always kind of odd? Does he have problems with balance or seem to go in one direction more than the other???
 
Is it me or does his dorsal fin seem very small? Isn't that another sign of morphing? How quickly does it normally happen?
 
When one of mine was little (2-3 inches) she used to climb ontop of the filter all the time and sit with most of her body including gills etc out of the water. She is now more like 8 inches and still spends alot of time in the upper part of the tank sitting in a plant, she tries to sit ontop of the filter sometimes but fails as she is too big. She had smallish gills at first but now she spends more time in the water they have grown.

My water parameters etc have always been good and her sister has never exhibited any similar behaviours prefering to skulk along the bottom of the tank.

I have always put it down to a personality quirk as she does not appear distressed in anyway.

I'm not saying your Axolotl is the same as mine I am just putting it out there as a possibility.
 
CJ1981 said:
When one of mine was little (2-3 inches) she used to climb ontop of the filter all the time and sit with most of her body including gills etc out of the water. She is now more like 8 inches and still spends alot of time in the upper part of the tank sitting in a plant, she tries to sit ontop of the filter sometimes but fails as she is too big. She had smallish gills at first but now she spends more time in the water they have grown.

My water parameters etc have always been good and her sister has never exhibited any similar behaviours prefering to skulk along the bottom of the tank.

I have always put it down to a personality quirk as she does not appear distressed in anyway.

I'm not saying your Axolotl is the same as mine I am just putting it out there as a possibility.
Click to expand...

That is very reassuring to hear :happy:
and mortimer no in the water hes alot more co-ordinated, its just out of the water hes pretty clumsy, no idea why he does it but he does lol
@ bellabelloo yeah his eyes are pretty prominent too, the only thing that hes not exhibiting is the muscular limbs haha, but then i think the pet store had stressed him out a fair bit, he was in a much smaller tank with two others slightly bigger than him, maybe thats why he developed that behavior, and its just gonna stick?
 
In my limited experience behaviour patterns change; certainly in young axolotls. I used to feed mine at the top and they hung around waiting. Now I drop food into the tank they seem to spend more time at other levels. Although I have put in platforms so they can laze about near the surface because they still do that some of the time. Yours might enjoy the same. Do you think your juvenile was kept in inappropriate conditions before you got it? Maybe too hot?

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well temp wise i think the shop was okay so many tanks together, so not much heat to draw from, however the water was a little cloudy and i did see some food that was slimed over, and given that they had 3 axies in a single 30 cm square tank there didnt seem to be a whole lot of room
 
I've actually found my melanoid hanging out on top of the filter back when I had one he could get on top of. It was scary actually, I didn't think they could breathe at all above water at the time. But three months later he hasn't morphed, and he can't get out of the water anymore either. Maybe some lotl's like going on land like humans enjoy going in the water? just some time to chill lol (i regularly check my water and my temp, always good)
 
Hey guys just an update on darrel, hes still going strong, feeding habits have slightly changed he now refuses to est anything but crickets, and alot of them, if i feed him any less than three he climbs onto his brick and makes this odd scuelch noise haha, ill try get it on video sometime. But hes going strong :) thanks for all your input!
 
looks to me like he's started to morph. i wouldnt let him get on top of the brick and if i were you i'd go to bunnings and invest in a $50 worm starter kit.
 
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