Leucistic morphed axolotl develops freckles over night

My leucistic morphed axolotl Mustang has recently been through a bit of an ordeal.
His two companion morphs both died from heat stroke (I had a previous post trying to figure out what was wrong with them) but Mustang has been fine, & now I know what the problem is he has been eating much better.
This afternoon I went to check on He/she (unsure) & he was covered in what looks like brown freckles. He ha always been completely pale pink with one or two tiny black spots his whole time with me. I do not know what is wrong, he seems perfectly healthy!!

Oh there is also a funny smell about his water ( he spends most of his time in water though comes onto land sometimes too, he has plenty of land acess, with daily 1/2 water changes until the filter is fixed)

It's common for axolotls to develop spots as they age, but I'm not really sure what it means if they develop overnight...

I can't tell you why they developed overnight but I can take a wild guess that it's the Leucy genes coming out.

Also, what does the water smell like? If it smells like chlorine or a chemical smell then it's either a chemical that's been added or potentially your water supply. I'd suggest a water change to get rid of any potential contaminants but if it still smells afterwards I'd ring up your water supplier to ensure they haven't changed the composition of the water.

Hope this helps!

layna said:

I cant help with the spots, but im curious, how did you find three morphed axolotls?

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You can buy them in Australia relatively easily. In the UK you would have to look for them in forums other than this , as the ones I had for sale were banned from being advertised by the powers that be....... If you look at my profile pic, thats three morphed axys.

It reminds me of my leucistic. I'm not telling it's the same thing, but who knows!
She's not a morpholotl but she was 100% pink more than a year ago. Then everything changed after a really hot summer. She started to develop pigmentation. She seemed okay. No other signs (stess, pain, etc). Just her happy self.
They never went away but the thing is... Every axolotl in that tank also developed a lot of pigmentation. The albinos got shiny pigmentation (not dark, which makes me believe that it actually IS pigmentation and not something else). Don't know what causes it though.
But last summer it was pretty hot over here again. The dark spots developed much faster than in the colder months.

I went to a vey yesterday. He couldn't find bacteria or other parasites. The skin was completely fine. There were little hard bumps (on the lips of 2 of my axies) but they we're okay. He said that he did saw some 'crystals'. "Maybe they're 'fat crystals', I can't really tell you." It sounds pretty odd.
He gave me some Baytril to put in the water. To see if the black-brown-green-shinyness and the bumps will disappear. The treatment was supposed to be a bath for 6 hours a day, 10 days in a row. It's not working so far and it killed Goldilocks, so I'm pissed off right now. "I know a lot about axolotls". No you don't, mister...

Anyway, the others seem okay. With or without pigmentation. I still love them!

Here's a picture:

OMG Morrison, I'm so sorry about Goldilocks

Aww thank you

Hi again, 2 days after the freckles were first noticed, I can in to check on it in the morning & they were completely gone except for one foots worth, which easily peeled off when I brushed it with my finger.
When I first saw the spots I tried doing this but they were definitely in the skin & wouldn't come off.

With the water smell, I did a complete water change & it hasn't come back.
It smelled really odd but not chemically or chlorine & it has been fine since then.

Also, yeah I found my three (now one after heat stroke ) on Gumtree.com from a reptile seller who knew very little about them, including how & what to feed them. I am not at all happy about my purchase as they were sold as salamanders & he was very unhelpful.
I DO NOT ENCOURAGE THE UNNATURAL MORPHING OF AXOLOTLS!


Thanks for all the reply's guys

The way it just peeled off like you said almost makes me think he was just shedding and the freckles developed that way. But I haven't ever really heard of that happening, so I couldn't really say for sure.

It is quite rare for axolotls to morph on their own, in Australia & Europe to get around no salamander pet laws, so they inject them with something which forces them to morph, more than halving their lifespan & often kills them

GreerDalrymple said:

It is quite rare for axolotls to morph on their own, in Australia & Europe to get around no salamander pet laws, so they inject them with something which forces them to morph, more than halving their lifespan & often kills them

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The link gives you some more info about morphed axolotls
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...eneral-discussion/91260-morphed-axolotls.html
They seem to be less temperature tolerant than aquatic axolotls, so it's not surprising that they tend to suffer in Australia, if you check the sick axolotl posts in this section there is a very high percentage of Australian posters and this is generally down to temp .

Thanks a lot, I'll check it out.
My morphy has been dealing a lot better than my axolotl though. So sad I only have one of each now