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Illness/Sickness: Strange growth on axolotls gill

AxolotlBear

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I have a concern reguarding my baby Dusk, I have not noticed this till today, but she is missing filliment on one of her gills and a bump has grown in the area. I have been working with her to regrow the filliment on her gills as when she was younger she had fluffy gills, but lost it quick as she grew. We have been making progress until I noticed this today. I'm sure it didn't happen overnight, and me not checking her as frequently is the cause of me noticing it now. However, does anyone know what this is? If I should hospitalize her, and separate her from her brother or if there is anything I can do for her? Will it re grow? Should I bring her to a vet? Could it be a tumor? I am so worried for her, she is like a daughter to me, same with her brother, if anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it. I did do some reading and found insufficient nutrition, lack of oxygen, poor water condition, and water current can effect them. They are fed blood worms, and red wrigglers daily, water temp (depending on season) can be from 65-70. 65 in winter, and summer is where I struggle to keep temps down. Fall and spring is typically 67-69. Dusk has had a fungal infection that we treated her for, I have no idea if that added to the cause, but that was a while ago. They do have a filter on their 37 gallon tank, and their water conditions stay clear and constant except for a few times where I would be away and no one would take care of them like I asked, or I had been abosrbed into my education, but I always made it important to clean them out the second I had the chance, and did a complete clean out. I always make sure to temperature match the water they are in and the tank so there would be little to no temperature difference. I hope someone can tell me what is happening with her, if it's stress from temp changes from seasonal environmental factors and if I should try to keep them constant. If so how would I do that? Also anyone have advice for keeping their temps down in the summer? Also important to note that her brother who lives with her is perfectly fine, has full gills, and I growths thank god.
 

KumquatSquats

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Apr 17, 2019
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is the "bump" in the gill stalk or is it the filament growth part of the gill?
some of mine came to me with bare gill stalks and have since fluffed up but they looked WEIRD while it was growing out.

i'll just describe what the (presumed normal) growth of mine looked like for comparison: first the back of the gill stalk was flat, some texture where the filaments broke off but mostly smooth. slowly the back started to look matted, mostly flat but looked tangled almost, the center balled up a little as they grew, looking closely it seemed to be veins growing first. finally the matted part grew to the point it was raised off the surface of the gill, looked like my 'lotl was trying dreadlocks and failing until finally the mass unfurled into normal looking gill filaments.

this whole process took about 2-3 months but my guys are babies so it might take longer for an adult to grow them out.
 
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