Unknown death

It is with great sadness to announce my beloved wildtype, Carlos, has passed away. I've had her for 15 months. I'm honestly at a loss as to what has caused this. The ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp and pH is all perfectly fine. All of my axolotls, including her are nice and chubby, and ate well (earthworms and axolotls pellets which all axolotls are fed the same). She was eating fine the day before, gills, skin and tail were all fine and she hasn't suffered an illness besides a mild fungus a couple of months ago.

I found her in the tank and she looked oddly bloated around the neck as well as her limbs. When I poked her she was stiff and lacked any colour. I placed her in a separate tub and she grew greyer, and greyer without movement so it's safe to say she passed. All other axolotls are fine and up to their usual self...

This is my second axolotl that has passed in my care and honestly, it is not down to my husbandry and I'm confused as to what to do to ensure I don't lose anymore. These two I got from the same pet shop and I wonder if they just have bad genes/organs.. Does anyone else have suggestions? Is there something else I can check in the water?

I already miss my beauty

Hayley, I'm so sorry for your loss. It's very frustrating when you don't know what happened. You could be right about the bad genes. Did you or someone else post recently about some axolotls in Australia just up and dying for no apparent reason? I seem to remember something about this. ?.

Thanks Bette I don't think it was me (who knows I always lose track of what I post..) but I am aware/heard of australian axolotls don't have the best/healthiest stock compared to the rest of the world, which sucks and I'm not entirely sure why.

I'm sorry for your loss.

What I've heard (on here or somewhere else) is that there was some breeder in Australia who kept breeding their axies despite the fact that they had some kind of genetic heart condition. So the bad genes spread all over Australia and those axies that get it just pretty much drop dead at around 1-3 years old.

Hayley, I'm so sorry for your loss. You'll probably never know the exact cause, but you can rest assured that it wasn't anything that you did or didn't do.

It certainly sounds like a genetic or congenital problem, and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it.

keiko said:

I'm sorry for your loss.

What I've heard (on here or somewhere else) is that there was some breeder in Australia who kept breeding their axies despite the fact that they had some kind of genetic heart condition. So the bad genes spread all over Australia and those axies that get it just pretty much drop dead at around 1-3 years old.

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Both axolotls passed after about 15-18 months in my care and they definietly no more than 3 years old

It really is a shame when this happens and there really isn't a sure fire way to just round up all the affected axolotls and prevent them from reentering the gene pool. If you got them from a pet shop you can try asking for the breeders contact and ask the breeder directly if any of their axolotls have just dropped dead and if those were part of the breeding stock.

im so sorry for your loss, i cant imagine how awful the feeling must be.. i must tell you Carlos looks like a beautiful axolotl, his pattern and coloring looks wonderful.

Im not really sure about the health of Aussie axies but from what i read on this post so far i imagine the problem is that people tend to not ship into and outside of Australia and New Zealand so the gene pool is much much smaller compared to the rest of the world. This unfortunately means that if there is some sort of a bad mutation or condition its much more likely to spread. Since some of these axolotls "die between 1-3 years" it means they probably have time to be breed by unsuspecting owners which furthers the spread of any bad mutations. This is a cycle so the results will be amplified and if everything i learned in 3 years of biology classes are correct then the best way to begin solving this problem would be for some aussie breeders the take the burden of some how importing healthy and fertile axies (tht are not siblings) from US or EU and start a breeding operation to water down the bad genes in the population.

I hope other owners do not have to go through what you are suffering through right now its so awful when a loved one departs way before his/her time

I'm very sorry for your loss. It sounds like you gave them the best care you could and I'm sure they were well-taken care of. Like everyone else said, it sounds like a genetic thing and there wasn't anything that could be done. Not that it makes losing them any easier.

I'm so sorry for your loss, that's just heartbreaking :c
When i was looking to get my axie i spoke to my aquarium shop and apparently in Australia the main breeder of axolotls went completely out of buisness a year or so ago due to some sort of out of control fungal outbreak, meaning lesser suppliers have more demand for them and it would explain lotls with bad genetics being more frequent here due to them trying to meet the current demand, i ended up getting my little toothless from a private breeder due to this. You did nothing wrong at all, it's just such a shame Carlos looks like he was a lovely little lotl..

So sorry for your loss!!!
I feel uneasy being in Australia, worst - in Perth where regulations are crazy; when I got my guys in May I had to preorder, heard the same story as Lucyz83 mentioned - but was also told to wait for a special batch where the axies were supposed to be 'top quality'. There were only 5, I got 2 of mine. Super scared that they may have some genetic issue; my girl laid first eggs yesterday and I'm giving them all away to people who know how to raise them - but I'm petrified, what if mine are siblings and I'm doing the wrong thing? Very scary.

Sorry to hear the sad news of Carlos.

Thanks guys it's been two weeks and all other babies are happy and healthy.

I know how you feel mmuumi, I asked where the breeders were from before purchasing them and they are all different besides my two siblings Pedro and Pablo, so I have to keep an eye out for those two getting frisky, or I'll have to euthanize all eggs because I wouldn't want to distribute them . Right now it's easy as Pablo is the only known male

Sorry to hear this news. I'm in the same boat; last night Eric, my leucistic, died. I have no idea why - he was completely happy and healthy. He was in a very peaceful position when I found him, so it doesn't look like he choked on anything or died in pain.

He was 3 years old too. I got him from an aquarium in Melbourne. I wonder if we don't have a less healthy stock of specimens to choose from in Australia? Hoping my other guy, Ernie, lasts a bit longer than Eric.

I send my condolences to you all.It really is to bad about the genetic problems in australian axies.