Illness/Sickness: Unusual development in axolotl, advice needed please

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Hi all,

I've noticed a couple of unusual things about my axolotl, Mortimer. The first is that one side of him seems to be developing faster than the other (for example, the toes on his hands are more developed on one side, and still webbed on the other. His gills are also much larger and more developed on one side than on the other)

Recently I've also noticed small whitish lumps on one of his toes, not sure what's caused these as they've appeared pretty suddenly. Perhaps damage now repairing itself?

Photos included below



 
Looks about normal to me. Axie's limbs and toes don't always grow back perfectly, I have an axie with different numbers of toes on each of his 4 feet, and one whose toes look exactly like yours.

White toe tips in dark/wildtype axies are the same as dark toes on albinos and leucistics - normal (and not a sign of maturity!)
 
That's great, thanks so much. The development on his left hand side is significantly advanced in comparison to his right side. Do you know of any reason for this? He seems happy enough, no problems, it's just a bit odd.
 
Maybe he's a black-on-black harlequin (or whatever the word is for the one's that are two eggs fused together)

Or maybe one side is just lazy :p
 
Axolotls are weird little things aren't they? They're all special in their own way, no two grow alike, or think alike, or even look quite alike. Like someone else said, you might have a fused-embryo axolotl on your hands. This is nothing to worry about, of course. Everything will level out once he's matured.
 
A chimera is when two eggs get fused, it is very rare and probably not the case in this instance. The axolotl looks fine , I would be more concerned about the gravel and the white bits on the top of the axolotl. Whats the tank temp ?
 
Hi,
Thanks for all your help. Temps a pretty constant 20*C (+/-2*C, dependant on weather/room temperature). He doesn't bulldoze, or never has done so far at least, so gravel's never been a problem. the skin condition has improved with regular water changes, I think it may be due to me going away for 10 days, so the water got a bit murky by the time I returned.
 
Sometimes they do grow a little bit... 'funky'.

My Roscoe has a leg that has never fully grown out, it's much shorter than the rest and for the most part stays tucked into his body.

We had him looked at when he was very small, and the vet was unconcerned, and as time has gone by it really doesn't seem to cause him any hassle. He's the quickest, strongest and probably hardiest of them all. It's just his attitude that stinks.

Here's a pic so you can see what I mean - he's the albino bottom right, you can see how his arm sits strangely. (Sorry it's such a terrible photo, it's the only one I have available right now that shows his arm.)

2ejM2Pc.jpg
 
One of my axolotls has an arm like that. She keeps it at her side at all times. It doesn't seem to bother or hurt her at all, so I'm not worried :)

I wouldn't worry over this either.
 
Breathing a sigh of relief, as I said he seems very happy :) Little quirks make him even cuter, really
 
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