Question: Well water making axolotls abnormal

I received my three very first axolotls as juveniles a little over a year ago, planning on heading to college with them for a college pet which worked out well. They began at my house where we are on well water, not tap. When going to college, they were on dechlorinated tap water. (One of those axolotls died before i went to college for no reasons due to water conditions)

They are now full grown, but recently a few months ago while returning home for the summer, i have noticed a change in their appearance and appetite.
They were also upgraded from a 20 gallon long to a 55 gallon and lost some appetite (but my two females are healthy with bellies the width of their head, my male who has always been thinner (but not by any means unhealthy) was the same) but i figured they were happier and liked having more room/didn't worry about food as much.

Over the summer i have acquired more axolotls as juveniles, and have them in different tubs and set ups. I have a tank divider in a 10 gallon filled with well water, with one larger juveniles (over 6 inches) and one smaller juvenile, they both started out really well and eating good but recently this week the frills on their gills have become shorter and more stubby and yesterday they didn't eat a whole lot.. my juveniles i have in tubs however are on dechlorinated tap water, all with much better gills and eating normally for each individual. My adults that i had in my 55 gallon i have moved back into the 20 gallon, thinking they would start eating better again because they ate so well in there before, but i have noticed my brown wildype and my pink lecuistic male are both starting to kind of slim down on their fins width-wise. my dark wild type has also developed what appears to be gold irridophores on her body which were not there before. She especially i have notice a fin decrease onto of her fin, right behind her back legs there is a dip and also overall decrease along the whole thing,... and no one has really regained appetite like before hand while at college..

I do not put dechlorinator in my well water, and i will get water conditions later today with my API test kit but i'm seeing a clear difference between my tap water and well water (the well water has a softener in it) I Just want to know if anyone knows what is up, why there is such a difference with my axolotls and what i can do to help the gills return to normal and get their tails back to normal. I know everyones well water is different but its really annoying to me when i know my animals have felt and looked better than this, sometimes they go through short periods where their gills shrink or they don't eat but they come right out of it.

Sorry this is so long, i can also attach pics or get pictures of whatever and will test water perimeters today... Thank you

I actually just responded to something exactly like this last night....and my answer is exactly the same.....

Well water is very natural and clean, but can have some levels of things higher than you want. For instance the water from the well I use is always a bit high in nitrate, but it could be ammonia or nitrite or whatever for yours etc..
I am unaware of what softeners really do other than softening the water ( shocker ), so I don't really know if they are safe for amphibians or not. What type of well are you talking about? The kind that only supplies your and maybe a few other houses? Or a larger one that supplies a neighborhood or something?

Small well that only supply a few houses are usually very clean healthy water ( with purification for drinking ), as they are filtered through the ground, which is a very good filter actually. They also usually come from a natural source.

Are your tank cycled?

Also, I would try testing the well water from the well, and see what you get. If you find that its too high or low of something for amphibians, obviously you will need to treat it with something or use different water.

Also, the axies might be adjusting some from the move, so that could be part of the cause of appetite loss.

I hope this helps! -Seth

sde said:

Well water is very natural and clean,

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Not necessarily. There are tons of stuff that can leak in to a well. For example the salt that is spread on roads to prevent ice can easily get in to a well when snow and ice melt even if the well isn't too close to a road. Also heavy rains and droughts affect the water. Pesticides and fertilizers can get in. Small animals might get in there. For example arsenic, radon or iron might exist in the soil and get in to a well. It doesn't even have to be close to the well and it'll still get in there with the ground water.
City water is tested all the time unlike private well water so it's a lot more likely to have some nasties all of a sudden in your well water than in city water. But then ofcourse with city water you get chloramines etc.

Edit: About the softener in your well water. From what I know axies prefer the water to be a bit on the harder side, so maybe test the GH.

keiko said:

Not necessarily. There are tons of stuff that can leak in to a well. For example the salt that is spread on roads to prevent ice can easily get in to a well when snow and ice melt even if the well isn't too close to a road. Also heavy rains and droughts affect the water. Pesticides and fertilizers can get in. Small animals might get in there. For example arsenic, radon or iron might exist in the soil and get in to a well. It doesn't even have to be close to the well and it'll still get in there with the ground water.
City water is tested all the time unlike private well water so it's a lot more likely to have some nasties all of a sudden in your well water than in city water. But then ofcourse with city water you get chloramines etc.

Edit: About the softener in your well water. From what I know axies prefer the water to be a bit on the harder side, so maybe test the GH.

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OK, I probably should have put a "usually" in there

From my experience, and from what I have been told/heard, well water is usually () pretty clean.
You do make some good points on the stuff about stuff leaching in, but I guess it depends on where your well is at. I was picturing my well, which is back in the woods and the only problem that have occurred are high nitrates and moles falling in ( put a screen over your well ).
Another thing is that you don't want your well to be stagnant.

Can iron and thing like that actually get into a well? I thought that they wouldn't, because I know that soil can affectively filter out bacteria's, so I figured that stuff like that wouldn't either?

Also, I would think that if your well has been up a running for several years, most of that bad stuff would be washed through already? If the water is coming from the same aquifer/groundwater flow then I would think that that stuff would all get washed through over several years? Maybe not. I am not a expert or anything

sde said:

Can iron and thing like that actually get into a well? I thought that they wouldn't, because I know that soil can affectively filter out bacteria's, so I figured that stuff like that wouldn't either?

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Yes it can. For example arsenic that is dangerous even for humans is a pretty common problem with deep bore wells around here. Pretty much everything that exists in nature also exists in soil or bedrock and with water running through it or over it it will dissolve in the water. And it most likely won't stop after just a few years or even a hundred years. Ofcourse most wells won't have those in harmfull levels but it's a good thing to keep in mind if there's something wrong with your aquatic pets.

I'm the other person with well-water concerns. What I've been able to find out is:

I have absolutely no proof, but I suspect that the dissolved minerals in our well water just aren't axie friendly.

My solution - schlepp buckets to work with me and fill them up with city water.