Axolotls losing their gills

I went to feed my axolotls today and noticed something terrible: their gills are degrading! Their once beautiful, feathery gills are now just stalks.
I have them each quarantined right now in clean water, but I have no idea why they've lost their gills. I've inspected each one and none of them appear to have any fungal or parasitic infection around their gills. I did a water change a couple days ago, but still ran a aquarium test. The temperature of the tank is currently at 62 degrees.
Results:
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0.1
Hardness - Soft
Chlorine - 0
Alkalinity - Moderate
pH - neutral (7.2)

I also have a small ghost shrimp in their tank that I use as an indicator (I've been told if water conditions are poor, the shrimp will show symptoms long before axolotls) but he seems to be perfectly fine.

I forgot to attach pictures, here they are

What are you using to test your water, strips? Strips are often inaccurate, you should get yourself a liquid master test kit such as the one API sells.

Do you know your ammonia? The shrimp isn't going to be a great indicator, you could still have high ammonia that could be harming your Axolotls.

Your nitrite is a tad high, and since your nitrate is zero, your tank isn't cycled which leads to poor water quality.

Here's an article on Aquarium cycling: Scales Tails Wings and Things, What is Aquarium Cycling? How to Cycle your Tank

I did use a strip (it's what I had on-hand) but I am on my way now to go get a liquid test kit. I have filter floss, ceramic blocks, and a sponge for the tank and had it cycling for a week before introducing the axolotls. However, I don't have the test for ammonia, so I will get back to you on that as soon as I can.

Your filter setup sounds great! But you cannot cycle a tank in a week (It's just not possible, the bacteria take longer than that) and with 0 nitrates it is certainly not cycled. So with the Axolotls in there, you're going to have spikes of ammonia and nitrite until the tank is fully cycled, and you'll have to keep a close watch on those levels and do regular (daily) water changes to keep the toxins from harming your animals.

Kaini said:

Your filter setup sounds great! But you cannot cycle a tank in a week (It's just not possible, the bacteria take longer than that) and with 0 nitrates it is certainly not cycled. So with the Axolotls in there, you're going to have spikes of ammonia and nitrite until the tank is fully cycled, and you'll have to keep a close watch on those levels and do regular (daily) water changes to keep the toxins from harming your animals.

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Yeah it sounds like an ammonia spike might have burned off the gill filaments. In fish high ammonia can permanently ruin the fish's gill filaments and even after the fish can't fully recover. Axolotls are pretty lucky and can grow back their gills over time. Just keep doing water changes and you'll see them grow back.

Unfortunately, the local pet shop isn't open on Sundays and I will have to wait until tomorrow to pick it up. However, a friend of mine has test strips that detect ammonia and it does in fact say that there is ammonia present. I also have "quick start" by API, which is supposed to contain and promote nitrifying bacteria, would this help in getting the tank cycled?

MRowe said:

Unfortunately, the local pet shop isn't open on Sundays and I will have to wait until tomorrow to pick it up. However, a friend of mine has test strips that detect ammonia and it does in fact say that there is ammonia present. I also have "quick start" by API, which is supposed to contain and promote nitrifying bacteria, would this help in getting the tank cycled?

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Yep, do some water changes, your tank is in the middle of cycling and will have spikes.

If you've had the quick start sitting around for a while, it probably won't do squat. I've NEVER had luck with 'quick' cycling products. the bacteria has a fine-ite shelf life, and dies if it gets too hot or cold in the bottle. This is bound to happen in warehouses and in the pet stores and there's just little chance that bacteria is still alive. Very little.

Plus it's not actually the same nitrifying bacteria that your cycle requires (I wish I knew the scientific names) - it's a shorter lived type that can be made dormant to be bottled (the actual bacteria would never survive in a bottle - it only has about an hour's life outside an aerated tank) and your cycle will eventually crash with this bacteria until the actual bacteria establish.

Usually people's 'successes' with these products are temporary and lucky for them the actual bacteria just so happen to establish in the meantime.

So tl;dr in my opinion those products are a terrible waste of money and you're better off just cycling the tank

Of course, I will still continue to cycle the tank, but it does give a more temperate tank for them while I'm building the cycle (poor things...)

Thank you guys for all your help, I will post the results of the test kit tomorrow as soon as I get them, but I'm fairly certain you guys nailed it and that this will work.

Alright, so I got the test kit and, sure enough: 4.0-8.0 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite and nitrate. The daily water changes bring the ammonia down to .25 ppm though, so I will continue doing this until nitrite and nitrate stabilize.

Thank you all for your help!

MRowe said:

Alright, so I got the test kit and, sure enough: 4.0-8.0 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite and nitrate. The daily water changes bring the ammonia down to .25 ppm though, so I will continue doing this until nitrite and nitrate stabilize.

Thank you all for your help!

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Pshew yep, that's high and that's exactly what happened. Glad you caught it and that we figured it out!