Question: Curled Gills and Tail Questions

Huskar · Jun 4, 2015

Hello everybody! I have two axolotls and they are growing really fast and eats very very well and right now one of them's tail is curled and the other one's gills are curled but not the tail and I was wondering what causes their gills and tail to curl? Does water temperature and non-direct sunlight cause their gills and tail tips to curl? Is there any other causes for their gills to curl besides water flow/water movements?

Thank you for taking time reading this! Hope for answers!

sully · Jun 4, 2015

its caused by stress. so perhaps the temperature is too high or there's an inbalance in the water qualities. i would get your water tested either way just to be sure. if you dont have a testing kit you can take a water sample to any petsmart and they will do a free testing.

allied123 · Jun 4, 2015

Petsmart usually just tests with inaccurate testing strips... (which could be somewhat correct but usually aren't) I agree you should test your water preferably with a liquid test kit and make sure the temp is low enough. But if they're full grown it might (emphasis on might, if you think the curled gills aren't how they normally are then it probably isn't normal!) just be how they are.

I have one white albino whose gills are always slightly curled forward (his gills are maybe a little bigger, hard to tell) and a melanoid golden albino whose gills are perfectly straight and they're from the same clutch I believe (bought them from the same breeder at the same time) but again up until they were like 4-6 months both their gills were straight back

gertrude · Jun 4, 2015

Sounds like a ph balance within your tank. Fridge the Axies for a night or so. Put them in UNTREATED simple spring water you can buy at any grocery. I perfer Zepherhills. Fridge them in the tupperware with the spring water. Change/ add spring water to the tank. The spring water is perfectly balanced. I had the same issue with an axie who was about a month and a half old, he was so delicate the ph imbalance couldn't be reversed. So I recommend doing this as soon as you possibly can and maybe even changing out the tank water or majority of it with the spring water.

Huskar · Jun 4, 2015

Currently my water test shows that there is no ammonia, no nitrite but little nitrate around 5, also water hardness is at around 150 and total alkalinity is at 40 and ph at 7.8

my tank setup is 40 gallon tank with fluval 406 with 30 inch spray connected with 1/10 hp aquaeuro chiller. For filter media I have basic foams on the bottom tray and other baskets are filled with biohome ultimate which is about a little over 3kg. I keep my water temperature between 60f~64f, the chiller automatically goes Into safe mode and the water temp goes up few degrees and then chills again so the temperature goes up and down every hour...

Im new to axolotl setup and i'm not sure what else i need to watch for when it comes to water quality, What other things are there to look at?

allied123 · Jun 4, 2015

Don't refrigerate your axolotl every time you get the hint that something's wrong and never do it for only 1-2 days. the temperature change is really stressful for them and should only be done when the situation calls for it. The ph is a little on the high side but perfectly within an acceptable range (I believe that the acceptable range is 6-8 but a higher ph makes ammonia have a more negative effect on the axies but someone correct me if I'm wrong as I'm not 100% sure now). I'm honestly not sure about the alkalinity or anything of that sort so hopefully someone else can comment on that but your temperature and no ammonia or nitrites and under 40 nitrates are perfect.

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Question: Curled Gills and Tail Questions

Huskar

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