Are they sick??

[adelle]

Hello. I am new on here and hopefully soon to be owner of two axolotls (or maybe one). Not sure yet.
Anyway to get to the point,the ones in the pet shop are very small but they got all their legs and all. Their tank looks great and there's about 5 in there. Only thing is when I went to see them and buy the setup they only had a couple of pink stumps either side of their head. I didn't see any frills at all and if they were there they must've been very small or so pale that I couldn't see them. They are pinky white coloured as are their gills (if you can call them gills).
So after worrying for ages I phoned the pet shop up today to ask them if they could check for me in case I saw wrong or missed them. They looked and said ''they do have just stumps but there are some frills around the stumps. They've just got their gills closed at the moment. When they open them you can see them. Also, they are juviniles.About 2months.''
Is this the reason or are they sick or about to change?
All photos I seen on the net and videos showed axolotls with large feathery gills that are showing all the time.
I read though that water temp can effect their gill size.
Has anyone bought axolotls with no feathery bits and did they grow? Anything I can do to make them grow?

 

[kaysie]

The gills could be small for a number of reasons. Water temperature, oxygen levels, infection of bacteria or fungus, predation, etc.

The only issue with having small gills is that they may come up for air at the surface of the water more often. Otherwise, small gills are usually not a problem.

 

[adelle]

good. releived to hear it, but is there a chance theyll grow maybe?

 

[kaysie]

They could, but they may just stay small.