Flicking gills?

J

Jcreppel

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I have two juveniles and one of them will sit and constantly flick his gills backwards, about every 5-10 seconds. I've sat and watched my other one and he doesn't do it. Could he possibly be sick or is this normal?
 
Does this happen all the time or just now? It could be that something got stuck in his/her gills (like small piece of plant, grain of sand, etc) and that it's just irritating, hence the gill flicking.

I'm not sure what it is if it's constant though (like for days on end without stop)
 
It's called breathing......
Serously, it encourages water over their gills for gas exchange, and it's perfectly normal. If they are flapping fequaently it's the equivalent of panting.
If you haven't got one you might conside adding an airstone or bubbler.
 
I was wondering about this too, one of mine flicks its gills every minute or so, but my older one HARDLY does it and by hardly I mean I've only seen it happen maybe 10-20 times in two years. I will actually sit there and watch him for ages and he doesn't flick - why? He does go up for gulps of air more often than the other one. Does he have faulty gills?
 
My axies are all totally different animals. Xotl rarely flicks his gills. Spotl in that case is a hyperactive gill flicker. I guess it's different in all axies.
But the axie I have with the shortest gills rarely flicks them as well, but gulps air more often.

So I guess it's a combination of (whatchamacallit...) 'GillConstruction and axie personality.

I hope someone actually understands what I wrote right now. It's quite late over here...)
 
All axolotls are different. Some use their gills more often than others, and some like gulping air from the surface. You don't have anything to worry about. c:
 
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