Over grown gill?

Hi,

I current have 3 Axolotls, Nuke, Rain and Gibbs, that are currently juveniles (around 3.5 - 4.5 inches). I'm a little bit worried about my largest Axii, Gibbs. His gills have grown a lot since we got him and recently he looks quite uncomfortable...

I was wondering if anyone could help me and let me know what I can do to help, if anything, or if he's ok.

Today he was thrashing around in the tank.

Here's a picture of him,

Thank you

The gills don't look oversize to me in that picture, but they seem kind of red. Thrashing is also a sign of irritation I believe. Have you tested the water parameters? When was the last time you did a water change?

We do weekly to biweekly changes

The temp is around 16-18
The ammonia is a little high... Has been for a couple of weeks now and it doesn't seem to be decreasing much...

Could that be the cause?

How high is the ammonia? This could possibly be the cause.

Yes, it could definitely be it. Signs of ammonia poisoning are things like red gills and irritated skin, and they could do things like thrashing and kicking at their bodies like a dog trying to scratch. I would do a test to see what the level is actually at and then do a large water change and test it again. You'll need to get it to 0 ammonia, or at least under .25 I believe. He should recover with cool, clean water.

The high ammonia makes it sounds like your tank might not have been cycled before the axolotls were in. I would suggest daily water testing and you might need to do daily (more or less) water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrites under .25, the nitrates should be around 40ppm. Once you test your water and it reads 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and whatever nitrates then it's cycled, then you just do the weekly or as needed water changes to keep the nitrates under 40ppm.

Ok thank you so much I'll do that immediately and see if it helps . Thank you