'blinking' gills

Hi i recently got some new juevenile axolotls around 6-7cm long. However my golden one doesn't seem to want to eat much (about a quarter of a medium axolotl pellet or literally few bloodworm).

The gills will 'blink' or twitch sometimes, and sometimes more than once in succession. It also seems to like burying itself amongst the pebbles, my other two don't seem to have any problems at all.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

Hi Chris,

Not eating: A couple of thoughts spring to my mind. First, if you just got the axolotls within the last few days, they could still be acclimating to the new environment. This puts many axolotls off of their feed for awhile. Perhaps the goldie is "shyer" than the others. If this is the case, he shold start eating again soon. Another thought is that perhaps they are only used to eating live foods and react to movement instead of smell. I am assuming here that the bloodworms are frozen. In this case, you could try live foods (click here for more articles on feeding) and, if you want to "wean" them into dead/inanimate foods, you could mix the two over a period of a few weeks.

Flicking gills is normal. The axolotl is just breathing through its gills. Some do it more obviously than others.

I am at a loss to explain burrowing. Axolotls belong to the type of salamander called "moles" meaning that the terrestrial types like to burrow. I've never seen an axolotl do it, though. Hopefully someone else will have more info on that.

Good luck to you, and welcome to the world of axolotls!

-Eva

Does your axolotl tank have bright lighting? Does it have lots of places for your axie to hide?

They will try to hide in the substrate if the lighting is too bright, or there is not lots of dark caves and plants to hide in.

As for the gill flicking, BB has nailed it, this is normal behavior. It is actually the axolotl's autonomous system dispersing CO2 from the fillembrials into the water.

Keep in mind though, these can be easily damaged by too much oxygen in the water. If you do not let your water "settle" for at minimum 24 hours, the dissolved O2 introduced by your tap will "condense" on the gills and actually cause damage to them. The bubbles formed by this may be too small to see with the naked eye, but they are a common cause of gill shrinkage and infection.

Great description "gills blinking" ... we know exactly what you mean!! Now if I said that to a "non-axie" person they would think me weird :happy:

Genene

Thanks guys, I would say there was plenty of places to hide just the golden ones seems to prefer to bury itself under the pebbles, but there may be too much light. I have found that dropping small pellets of food infront of them makes the golden one eat. The other two are still doing fine.

The only question I have left is how much should they be eating, at the moment I'd say they're eating about half their own head size, is that enough? They seem to only want to eat every alternate day, ie Mon, Wed, Fri etc but I thought fry were ment to eat daily!? Or are they now passed fry stage?

Thanks to all.

Hi Chris,

A 7-8-inch axolotl could, I think, safely be considered an adult. It should be enough to feed them once a week, or two small feedings a week, if you feel better about that. If you are feeding pellets, a tiny amount is adequate. If they are small pellets and not large round tabs, then 4-5 pellets a week per axolotl should be enough to keep them well fed. I know it seems like a tiny amount of food, but pellets are high-nutrition foods and their greatest risk is overfeeding.

-Eva

Oh no sorry they're 7-8cm maximum not inches. Their head is about the size of fingernail of an average hand.

Sorry, don't know how I missed that, since I'm on metric too.

Ok yes, they should be fed each day. Do they have hind legs already? (It's been a long time since I had larvae.) Is it possible for you to try live foods? (Mosquito larvae, live bloodworms, daphnia...)

Does the one not eating as much look too thin? Maybe he just doesn't eat as much at a sitting, perhaps smaller but more frequent feedings?

-Eva

Thanks for that, the feeding was going fine and things were looking on the up. However the one that wasnt feeding at some point last night got out of its tank.

When put back into the water it swam a little, however now it seems as if two legs on one side are badly injured and it's gills have pointed forwards and gone more frilly. It isn't dead but hardly moving, it has a curved tail and a more red like colour due to blood vessels.

How should I treat it; I cant find any advice on treating axolotls that have escaped.

Firstly prevent future occurences by putting on a secure lid or mesh screen over your tank.

Monitor water parameters and temperature closely. Poor conditions often trigger jumping frenzies. Ensure that there are no aggressive tank mates in the tank, bright lights or strong vibrations that can startle the axie.

For the axie that jumped out, the best treatment is to fridge it for three weeks. Allow it plenty of uninterrupted rest. Good nutrition is essential, so do continue to offer live blackworms and earthworms during the recovery.