Golden Albino help

Hi All

I am new to this forum and am finding it difficult to find some direct answers about our axolotl.

We got him just before christmas and he had white spots on his tail and looks quite skinny..but I've read this can just be the normal pigmentation of the golden albino. The white still looks the same (not worse) and originally I was feeding him once every 3 days a quarter to half a square of frozen axolotl food (defrosted in a container of tank water) as this is what the shop man told me to do. However I realise he can probably eat every day or every other day half a square!

He is in a 60 odd litre tank (i believe) and i do 50% water change weekly and add the water conditioner at every change. He has large river rocks as substrate and a drift wood tunnel (of which tannins leaked into the water fkr several weeks) seems to have mostly cleared now.

I have put a few pics up of him and his tank...could I please have some advice? He doesn't seem to be swimming around as much. He always has put himself in odd positions (such a lovable creature) but just want to male sure he isn't unwell! He is still eating!

Hi and welcome to the forum :happy:

As you realise, your axolotl is rather underweight. I'm not familiar with the food your are offering so I can't really advise you on that. I would suggest offering live earthworm, if you have an organic. chemical free garden you could use these. They can also be purchased from bait shops or on line. I would offer these daily. How warm is the aquarium water?

While your substrate looks lovely, it also traps waste and food, this can pollute the water and make cleaning tricky. How about removing it and perhaps replacing with pre-washed sand?

I would start feeding daily as long as they will take it. Red Wigglers are great, so is frozen blood worms. I would also add more places to hide in the tank. you should have at least 2 places to hide for them. Also, make sure you have something to block the flow of your filter, the water movement can stress them. The tank may also be small for him once he gets bigger. I recommend minimum 20 gallon long tanks. Bigger is better and the more hides the better. Live plants are also a good addition.

The color and speckles look normal. The axolotl looks underweight. Frozen bloodworms would be o.k. as an appetite stimulant but are not a nutritionally complete food. Axololt pellets and earthworms are more nutritionally complete. Some salamanders don't like the taste of red wigglers (Eisenia foetida). Other types of earthworms would be better. I'd get rid of those big stones and use sand or bare bottom with some hides.

What are your water parameters like?

PH, Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites and temperature? Cant see from the picture is that just a power head or does that pump actually have biological filtration under the lid? Is your tank filter being properly cycled?

Your axie gills look very bad, which can be result of many things but most obvious ones here and malnutrition and possible bad water quality, Address those two things first. Will not be surprised of those white things on them beginning of bacterial/fungal infection.

As someone up already mention your rocks bottom is trap for a lot of debris and its hard to clean , it will keep trapping food / poop and your ammonia will for sure be going up.

Change that to very fine sand which you can easy clean.