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Bloody gills...

Anniebeth

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Hi everybody!

I have never kept amphibians before but two weeks ago took in two 17month old leucistic males who needed rehoming.

They had been living in isolation without much enrichment so its been a big change for them. A couple of days after arriving they got very excited and dropped loads of spermatozores all over the tank! After this things have calmed down and they seem happy together.

A couple if days a go I noticed one axo, 'Pinky', had damage to one gill. It looked bloody, and I found a small amount of gill tissue floating around the tank. 24 hours later the tip filaments had gone white (dead?).

Now some filaments on another if pinky's gills is starting to look a bit bloody ? Skeletor's gills all look fine.

One possibility is that the 'enrichment' rocks have caused abrasion, another is that the filter has some how caused problems, or that there is an invisible cause as ive llowed the kids to feed them earthworms as well as axonew pellets, whereas before they only had a fairly sterile environment with just pellets.

Any suggestions?
The damage is fairly minor atm but I don't want to see them get sick and die ?
 

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Anniebeth

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Location
England
Hi there, update on my new axolotls :happy:

I got concerned about the flow from my filter, so I turned it off. Result after two days was, despite water changes, water got cloudy but their gills no longer looked like they had bloody bits, and the gill which got shortened looks like it may be regrowing.

However sat watching them this evening, pinky came to surface about 4 times in 15 minutes for a gulp of air. So I turned the filter back on to increase aeration and clean the water a bit.

I've done my best to disrupt the water output a bit more as it does create flow. Could this flow have caused the bloody gills??

I cant find a spray bar for my interpet pf mini filter, could I make my own?

And should I add an air stone, bubbles? Because my axolotls look a lot more frilly than some... is it due to poor oxygenation???

Also in the pic, those are the axonew pellets I'm feeding them. Are they too small?
 

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