why does my axolotl have black gill

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sarah87

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i been watching my axolotl over the past few weeks and she seems to have a black build up on her gills i was wondering what it is as i am very attached and want to treat it if its something serious , but deep down i hope its nothing , if anyone can help please do, she olso has yellow spots on her body i keep my tank super clean

i got a picture below
 

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Hi Sarah,

Not to worry. Your axolotl appears healthy and fine. Your axolotl is a leucistic. Leucistic axolotls sometimes acquire more pigmentation as they grow older. The pigmentation is usually distributed around the head and back region. The area around the gills is one such place where pigmentation can develop.

The yellow spots are not an illness. They too are pigmentation (pigmentation comes in many colours). In fact, i think they are lovely.

Cheers.
 
she use to have a gravel substrate but i changed it to a very fine sand and she been passing loads of the old gravel and she was once very fat now shes really thin and moving arounds a lot , where as before she was quite lazy , why is that , is it a good sign or a bad one , as she moves around a lot but hides most the time that i know of
 
HI Sarah,

Its a wise move to change the substrate to sand. Try removing all the old passed out gravel manually to prevent them being re-ingested.

If your axie is eating well and still pooping, it is always a good sign. It means that the gut is not blocked and is patent.

She doesn't look fat in the photos. She is at the right size. Being obese is not good for health. It can put a strain on the axie's internal organs and can make it less active as a result.

Perhaps now that she has passed out the gravel and is at her right size, she is feeling all raring to go.

Cheers.
 
Not that I'm an expert by any means, but I wouldn't call your sand "fine sand". It's a lot coarser than the sand that I have in my tank. Maybe you should look into getting some finer sand?
 
i have just noticed her gills are dissapering they were all there this moring now as you can see her right gill is getting smaller what should i do??
 

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Hi Sarah,

Does your axie have any other tank mates? Aggressive fish etc. can nibble at the gills.

The other thing to check for are water parameters. What are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH levels?

Ideally you should have 0 ammonia and nitrites, <60 nitrates and neutral pH around 7.

Any traces of ammonia and nitrites can cause gill filaments to fall off.

Next, what are you feeding your axie? Nutrition plays an important role as well. Malnourished axies can lose their gill filaments.

Cheers.
 
all them are fine. she is in the tank by herself and i feed her frozen blood worm mysis brineshrimp chopped muscle and vegatation (cichlid diet)
 
Hi Sarah,

Axolotls have the gastrointestinal tract of a carnivorous animal so im afraid the cichlid vegetarian diet will not do much in terms of nutrition.

Most of the food types you offer are alright as occasional treats. Bloodworms can be used as a staple but have you considered live earthworms? Actually i would consider earthworms to be nutritionally most superior out of all livefoods for axies.

Recently a horrible event happened with my axies and they were all malnourished. They lost their gill filaments. I gave them a high earthworm diet and i can actually visibly see how rapidly their recovery is progressing. They are now regenerating the filaments again.

Perhaps you might like to give live earthworms a try?

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/worms.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods2.shtml

Cheers.
 
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