Illness/Sickness: Rescued Axolotl - Possibly Morphing? HELP!

Kirby

Kirby

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Hi guys,

I'm in need of some advice and help. I hope that I'm just panicking and there's no need for alarm, but I'd rather be equipped with the knowledge on what to do if this is the case.

I rescued two Axolotls yesterday from a friend in a bad situation. They lived with 2 goldfish and a weather loach. I know this is a bad thing to happen, so I expected the axxies to be in a bad state but they actually look in very good condition fortunately, all filaments in tact etc.

I took the two axxies home but it took an hours drive and was very stressful for the two little 9 month axxies. But I got them home, in their nice new tank, fed them some bloodworm and they appeared to settle :)

One is a black male and one is an albino female who is much larger than the male, she looks pregnant tbh, can they lay eggs at 9 months old?

Anyways, this morning, they appeared to be OK, but I noticed that the albino has darker patches of skin on some of her gills and a few darker shades on her head.... I REALLY hope this doesn't mean that she's morphing into a salamander.. I've only ever seen pictures and I'm aware of it, but never experienced it (nor do I want to :()

Lots of questions coming!....

  • Do these darker shades of skin mean that she could be morphing?
  • If she is, is there anyway to stop it?
  • If she's pregnant, would that be a very bad situation?
  • How can I find out?
  • If she is morphing, what on earth do I do?
  • Could the dark spots be bruises if she banged her head during transportation?
They're in a tank that's 3 feet long by 1 foot wide by about 2 foot tall and the water is filled all the way to the top with a lid. They're on sand and have lots of places to hide.

I really hope that it's nothing and I'm freaking out for no reason! I’ll try and add photos when I get home later. That may help.

In the meantime, any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you so much!

P.S. Just a bit of background about myself – Ive had axxies for 2 years now, I have two males and a female who laid eggs 5 months ago and I have raised the axxies to the point where they are now 5 months old, doing extremely well and are looking for new homes! J Im a very pleased axolotl mommy!
 
I took some on my Iphone this morning but it was far too dark, so I'll try some more photos when i get home tonight on my DSLR.

I've been looking at lots of axxies online and morphing... and i found this picture on Caudata..

http://www.axolotl.org/images/animals/d_leucistic2.jpg

The Axxies spot kind of look like that but there isn't as many. I'm beginning to think if this is just part of her colour now... but i'm sure i didn't see it when she was at the house i rescued her from. :s I am so confused. I mean, what is the first thing that happens to an axxie when they start to morph?


Like i say, I hope Im overeacting! (If so, apologies for blagging you all - BUT, I won't risk the health of my axxies, it's all worth checking out, right!?)
 

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Kirby said:
I took some on my Iphone this morning but it was far too dark, so I'll try some more photos when i get home tonight on my DSLR.

I've been looking at lots of axxies online and morphing... and i found this picture on Caudata..

http://www.axolotl.org/images/animals/d_leucistic2.jpg

The Axxies spot kind of look like that but there isn't as many. I'm beginning to think if this is just part of her colour now... but i'm sure i didn't see it when she was at the house i rescued her from. :s I am so confused. I mean, what is the first thing that happens to an axxie when they start to morph?


Like i say, I hope Im overeacting! (If so, apologies for blagging you all - BUT, I won't risk the health of my axxies, it's all worth checking out, right!?)
Click to expand...

If they have spots on them that is normal if they are lighter eg leucistic etc
When an axie starts to morph you can tell by their gills starting to shrink etc, tbh your axie looks fine to me :)
 
Thanks for the advice. I have returned home and she's OK. Still a bit stressed I think though, her and her buddy are hiding. I decided not to take any pictures or blag them with light. Ill let them settle in some more.

Would it be a bad idea to mix them with my own axxies? They're in a tank on their own at the moment and my own axxies are their own tank too, but my female just laid eggs, so I need to separate her. Was hoping to put her with the new female and then put the males together.

Several of my local shops said that if the tanks big enough and the axxies are all the same size, there shouldn't be any drama, but I wanted to check with you guys.

I don't particularly want to separate the two new guys but I only have two tanks and no space left for another. *sigh* poor little axxies. :(
 
You have a leucistic there, she has a shiny eye ring. My leucistic has loads of markings on his face too, it's nothing to worry about. They are most likely just stressed from the journey and will be fine in a couple of days once they have settled in.

You need to quarantine them for a while before you put them in with your own axies. You need to make sure they don't have anything you wouldn't want your other axies to catch. I'd personally wait a month, just to be sure. Also, make sure if you do eventually add them that the tank is big enough for them all. It's generally 10 gallons per axolotl, but the more space, the better.
 
Also, I saw you live in Leeds. I live in Leeds too. Do you know of any good pet shops around?
 
Thanks for the advice.

That's what I intended to do tbh. Leave the two new axxies for a while before mixing them with my own.... However, I didn't think my female would lay eggs the moment she was reunited with her males.

Will my female be ok to stay with the males after she's laid her eggs? I don't want her to get pregnant so quickly again (I swear, they are the randyest / most fertile Axolotls in the world!)

I always go to paws 4 thought on York Road in Leeds.They have axxie experts there and sell great bloodworm/daphnia etc :)

Nice to meet another Leeds person!

Btw, this is probably in the wrong place, but can baby axxies have electrolytes? I'm devastated tonight.. Amongst all the other chaos, one of my babies jumped onto the floor .... He's recovering back in his tank, but his tail started to curl at the tip (I know what this means :( :() and he's flapping his gills a lot... I'm terrified of losing him, he's 5 months old and I love him... But I don't know if there's anything I can do. I hope electrolytes will help him, but I'm unsure if they're compatible with axxies.

Jeese, it's all going wrong. :(
 
Kirby said:
Thanks for the advice.
one of my babies jumped onto the floor .... He's recovering back in his tank, but his tail started to curl at the tip (I know what this means :( :() and he's flapping his gills a lot... I'm terrified of losing him, he's 5 months old and I love him... But I don't know if there's anything I can do. I hope electrolytes will help him, but I'm unsure if they're compatible with axxies.

:(
Click to expand...

The kinked tail in a five month axolotl is not a sign of impending death so chill out. Just keep it in cool clean water and make sure its ok.
 
Maybe try putting in a divider so your female doesn't get pregnant again so soon? It's not likely that your new axolotl is pregnant with fertile eggs if she's only 9 months old.

I doubt that she's turning into a salamander, the first signs are shrunken gills and eyelids. Besides, lecustics (what you have) seem to turn into this ugly grey salamander (don't ever want one. Axies are gorgeous.) and not a dark salamander
 
Quentari said:
Maybe try putting in a divider so your female doesn't get pregnant again so soon? It's not likely that your new axolotl is pregnant with fertile eggs if she's only 9 months old.
Click to expand...

Axolotls become gravid not pregnant, this happens wether a male is present or not. At nine months it could potentially lay.
 
xxianxx said:
Axolotls become gravid not pregnant, this happens wether a male is present or not. At nine months it could potentially lay.
Click to expand...

Yeah I didn't know the proper term. She probably has eggs but it's unlikely that they are fertilized (everywhere i read says that won't happen until they're closer to a year old). Could be wrong though.
 
Kirby said:
I always go to paws 4 thought on York Road in Leeds.They have axxie experts there and sell great bloodworm/daphnia etc :)

Nice to meet another Leeds person!
Click to expand...

Aah, I went to that shop the other day. I live on the opposite side of Leeds, so it's a nightmare to get to. We just happened to be in the city centre so we took a detour home to have a look. It was a very impressive shop, I've never seen so many reptiles and fish in one shop! The kittens were adorable too, lol. I was so disappointed with the axolotls though. They had them on sand, but there were bits of gravel in there. I saw one eat a piece of gravel and another was slightly floating. They all had gills missing too. There was only one axolotl that looked healthy.
Other than that it was impressive, we spent a long time in there, hehe!

The divider is a great idea. I don't know much about breeding axolotls but I have read that the female should have a break after she has laid. This way she can have some peace. :happy:
 
Thanks for the responses guys.

I'm extremely pleased to say that my baby, who jumped out of his tub, is still with us this morning. He's looking quite well and cheeky. The tip of his tail is still curled and looks black. I'm keeping a close eye on him. He's pooped and eaten, and earnt himself the name of 'Knoxville' as he likes doing stunts apparently! He's in a tub with much larger sides and a lid.
All of the other babies are doing great and are ready for new homes. Ill start advertising today.

I have a tank divider and can separate my female from the two males. However, I thought that females could still get pregnant just because they're still in the same water as males? I'm going to freeze these eggs unfortunately as I already have babies to look after and now two extra axxies. Unless anybody here wants the eggs?

Is it always typically this easy to get axxies to breed? Mine appear to love it!

Thanks again for the advice and I'm glad my new female isn't morphing! Her markings are quite endearing!
 
snuggly time said:
Aah, I went to that shop the other day. I live on the opposite side of Leeds, so it's a nightmare to get to. We just happened to be in the city centre so we took a detour home to have a look. It was a very impressive shop, I've never seen so many reptiles and fish in one shop! The kittens were adorable too, lol. I was so disappointed with the axolotls though. They had them on sand, but there were bits of gravel in there. I saw one eat a piece of gravel and another was slightly floating. They all had gills missing too. There was only one axolotl that looked healthy.
Other than that it was impressive, we spent a long time in there, hehe!

The divider is a great idea. I don't know much about breeding axolotls but I have read that the female should have a break after she has laid. This way she can have some peace. :happy:[/QUOTE

Snuggly,

I actually live in Bradford, but I commute to Leeds for work so use Paws. Seems better than Bradford shops. There's CSS fish shop but their bloodworm isn't always alive and fresh. There's also Predators but I use those for my reptiles, not axxies.

That doesn't seek right that they're mistreating axxies, they're so knowledgable about them... Maybe they rescued the axxies in there? But that's no excuse to put them on pebbles like that :( fishy! :(

Is there anywhere else that do axxies?
Click to expand...
 
I got mine from Pet Safari which is in the Stephen Smiths Garden Centre in Otley. That's very close to where I live. They don't get many axolotls in though. I've only ever seen mine in there and the owner said she had two rescues in a couple of months ago. They do other animals like reptiles, fish, other caudates and newts etc. I haven't found anymore pet shops that sell them locally.

The axies had clearly been attacking each other in paws. I'm sure they will be fine if they find loving homes with more space. They had a few bits of gravel in, but a few can still harm them. Perhaps they were rescues and they had passed the gravel once already. Other than that they were fine :happy:

This is my axie, he has so many freckles/markings, I love them! http://www.caudata.org/forum/members/snuggly-time-albums-wooper-picture28702-a.jpg
 
Ohhhh I know that garden Centre! I may pay it a visit one time! :)

Your axxies is BEAUTIFUL btw!! I guess those markings arent anything to worry about after all! SO CUTE! :)

I'm going into Paws on Wednesday (Thats when they get their bloodworm fresh delivery!) so I'll check out their axxies then. if they are in a bad way and they don't realise it, then i don't think I'll let any of my babies go to them. :(

Here's an album of my babies! (IT's a Facebook album but I'm public, so you should all be able to see!)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151429559002944.1073741845.512802943&type=1&notif_t=like

Please excuse the dirty floor in some of them, i photographed whilst i was cleaning them out and sometimes they did something adorable and cute in the next tank before id cleaned, so i had to shoot it!

I have photographed all my axxies this weekend... Including the new arrivals.. who seem to have settled in very well now! :) They're getting less shy and hiding less! I am concerned by the female though, she looks massive.. like.. she's inflated or something. :(

Ive attached a picture of how big she looks and a picture of her veiny dark looking gills.
 

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