Axolotl's gills almost entirely bare?

So I've been finding a lot of threads about this with about a million different reasons why the axolotl is losing their gills, but Steve is definitely not looking good and I'm hoping maybe some photos will help figure out which reason it might be.

Facebook reminded me the other day that we got Steve 5 years ago. But in the photo I noticed how much bigger his gills were back then. I just assumed his gills were on the smaller side because of a genetic reason, but it seems like I wasn't quite right?

I've attached two photos. One is the one facebook showed me, with his full gills. His gills got a little smaller over time but the second photo is now, which is the absolute smallest they've ever been.

I'm worried something might be wrong. Here's the top few issues I see that would cause this and what I'm doing with him for each of those options.

Water Quality Problem: Steve gets RO/DI water with Kent RO Right. This is because my apartment complex has a lot of ammonia in the water and mixing my own is easier. All his parameters are 0 and the High Range PH is 7.5. (His tank is a 15gal long). His water temperature is currently 70 degrees but usually it's at 68.

Filtration/Airation: Steve has a Tetra Whisper filter. I change the filter once a month for a fresh bag and fresh carbon (I get the filter packs you assemble yourself because they're cheaper. The water level stays high so the filter output doesn't splash the water or move it much.

Food: Steve has been eating pellets made by his breeder since I brought him home. I wondered if the food was the issue so I've started feeding him earthworms (rinsed in tank water, he gets 1 per day if he'll take it). The worms are a recent thing and were a response to the gill hair loss.

Does any of that information seem off? Am I doing anything to inadvertently harm him? Any thoughts on the matter would be helpful. I can provide more info if I've missed something.



PS: Steve has had that weird deformed middle gill fin since I got him. It's always been like that.

It could be a nutrient deficiency perhaps? You never want to feed JUST pellets, you want to feed them Bloodworms with them, and its not a good diet to maintain, Feed him now mainly earthworms, about every other day,and every now and then feed him some bloodworms and pellets. Also I suggest instead of tap water, if you have a Krogers where you live go out and get Krogers Drinking Water, I find it is the best water for Axolotls, reguardless of what other sources may say, and I have had it professionally tested to ensure that it is perfectly fine for axolotls and can withstand ammonia levels properly, and it doesnt need dechlorinator.

Eternie said:

It could be a nutrient deficiency perhaps? You never want to feed JUST pellets, you want to feed them Bloodworms with them, and its not a good diet to maintain, Feed him now mainly earthworms, about every other day,and every now and then feed him some bloodworms and pellets. Also I suggest instead of tap water, if you have a Krogers where you live go out and get Krogers Drinking Water, I find it is the best water for Axolotls, reguardless of what other sources may say, and I have had it professionally tested to ensure that it is perfectly fine for axolotls and can withstand ammonia levels properly, and it doesnt need dechlorinator.

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I'm wondering that as well. I guess somewhere along the lines of researching, I got the idea that just pellets were ok and never bothered to vary the diet. I hope the earthworms solve the issue :<

As for the water, would you say that RO/DI water with the minerals mixed back in is still inferior to storebought drinking water? I use an RO/DI Unit in my house for my saltwater tank so it's very convenient to make it for the axolotl as well (just mixing in minerals instead of salt). Or is that potentially hurting him?

I honestly dont know anything about RO/DI, I would say if its working out well for him currently, then keep it up, but if the diet change doesn't help I would say possible try to kroger drinking water, though you would want to make the water change gradual to not put him in shock.

I hope all goes well!

Hi everybody, I hope my story could help in gill issues:

I have a female wild type axolotl sonce 6 years ago. She suffer the same problem with her gills: get thinner and lost their "featery", even more than your axie... however my pet do not shows a sign of illness, she eat regularity and voracious and move around the tank very normally. I try everything and i found non conclusive information in every forum so i gave up

One fine day i decided to fight with a little algae problem in my tank so I used a conditioner called AZOO ALGAE TREATMENT in the recomended way by the product label and.... I got blunted out with the magically and unespected recovery of her gills just 2 or 3 weeks after the algae treatment. I don't know exactly what's the active ingrediente of that product because i cant found information since AZOO describes as "exclusive formula", maybe is a more secret formula than KFC or something like that.... anyway, i hope you found this helpfull....

A couple things:

First, when you replace your filter cartridge, make sure you always leave an old one behind the new one, otherwise you’re throwing out all of your bacteria (unless there’s some bio media in your filter, but you haven’t mentioned any.) A 0 nitrate reading could mean that your tank has lost its cycle.

Second, with RO/DI, you need to remineralize the water. You want to keep GH between 7 and 14 degrees and KH between 3 and 8.

Third as others mentioned, your pellets could be nutritionally incomplete, supplementing with earthworms is always a good idea.