Axolotl rescue

Today I stopped at a pet store to look for a male axolotl. They had 3 subadult axolotls in about a 29 gallon tank crammed full of feeder goldfish. Their were dead goldfish floating in the tank and it was cloudy. I explained to the owner that the axies were not in the best set up. They had burnt gills and their growth was stunted. They also looked a little more pink than normal.
I bought the male white albino for a low price. The owner wanted to sell me all 3 real cheap. I thought to myself "I'm dumb enough to buy one but not dumb enough to buy all 3." I got fresh cool dechlorinated water at the store and took the axolotl home in a styro box with an ice pack. At home I put it in a cycled ice chest tank and immediately treated it with Furan 2. I'll quarantine this guy for at least 3 months. Hopefully he will shape up and be good breeding stock.

Normally when you see an animal in that kind of shape the best thing to do is shake your head and leave. If you rescue stressed or sick animals and don't practice good quarantine you can put your whole collection at risk.

Do as I say not as I do.

I'm quite surprised that you have a pet shop that sells axies. That's a rarity in the US. Where do they get them? It's a shame they don't take better care of them.

Their is a local wholesaler that sells axolotls. They come with care sheets but this guy must not have read it. They all come from a breeder in Ephrata, Pa.

Thats really sad to see Michael.

One our local shops has stopped getting them in after 5 came into the shop looking like a dog had been at them. The following week i went in to see how they were doing and the tanks had been covered up.

I had to be nosy and to see the state the poor thing were in after a week. So i looked over into the open top tank to find only 3 axies, who were all in a awful state covered in fungus, there was not one patch of bear skin to be seen.

I advise the people in the shop what they should do with them (salt bath etc) and take them out of the tanks that are connected to the rest of the shop, and they seemed to take it all on board.

I went back in 2 days later and all of them had gone and on one knew what had happened to them, not even the guy who i spoke to the day before.

This was now over a year ago, and they have not got any back in. Im actually glad about this as it was a very bad example to the public, to just cover the front of a tank up when they are only 3 ft from the floor and people can see straight over the top.

omg that is so sad i have only found 1 fish shop here that sells these axies and so far they seem to be ok they dont seem to be going very fast tho cause not many ppl here know of them i would love to go to the fish shop and take them all home as in there all they have is a little tank with gravel at the bottom thats it and there are about 6 in that 1 little tank

its a shame that we have laws to protect land dwelling animals but none for creatures that live in water, even if we did im not sure people would even be interested in upholding them as it seems the attitude towards them is 'its only a fish'.

i have often been laughed at when people ask about my fish and if they get onto the topic of them being sick etc, i tell them i get medication for them and if i cant fix them i put them to sleep (take them to the vets and they put them to sleep with stuff in the water), they often say once again 'its just a fish', i reply by saying 'if your dog was sick youd try to help it right? you wouldnt let it suffer-but hey, its just a dog'

i have saved one axolotl only, and its one of two that i have seen in desperate need of help (the second was so full of stones his head was 3cm from the ground so probably couldnt save). the one i saved was covered in fungus, a few of its gills actually snapped off while netting and his tank was so heavily filtered he was floating around the tank like a fish. i took him home to the quarentine tank, thankfully he survived and as happy now, if space and money permits i will always try to save an animal.