Axolotls are losing gills

[TeriKay]

What is causing my axolotls to lose their gills? They seem happy and otherwise healthy. They are active and eating regularly. Also growing, I got them 3 weeks ago. I started off doing a 20 percent water change but didnt seem it was effective enough. Have gone up to about a 50 percent water change but hasnt stopped or slowed down the loss of gills.
Any help?

 

[Bear16]

Ok so I'm not highly experienced however I have had the same concern as you, I visited pet stores and got 2 possibilities.

1) Could be lots of oxygen in the water therefore the gills don't need to work as much causing loss of gills
2) Poor water quality. The chemicals in your water may be off balance, it can be difficult maintaining good water quality

I suggest taking some water to your pet store and asking for them to test your water and see what the results are. If that comes up all good and there are no other visible symptoms then I would assume there is a high oxygen concentration in the water. If there's a bubbler in the water it might be good to switch that off and see what happens (as long as you have a filter going still)
All on all I would go to the pet shop.

Hope your Axolotls regain their gills soon!

 

[TeriKay]

Thanks for the information, it gives me a place to start!

 

[tipnatee]

Ok so I'm not highly experienced however I have had the same concern as you, I visited pet stores and got 2 possibilities.

1) Could be lots of oxygen in the water therefore the gills don't need to work as much causing loss of gills
2) Poor water quality. The chemicals in your water may be off balance, it can be difficult maintaining good water quality

I suggest taking some water to your pet store and asking for them to test your water and see what the results are. If that comes up all good and there are no other visible symptoms then I would assume there is a high oxygen concentration in the water. If there's a bubbler in the water it might be good to switch that off and see what happens (as long as you have a filter going still)
All on all I would go to the pet shop.

Hope your Axolotls regain their gills soon!

There are no such thing as too much oxygen in water , only not enough. Oxygen give them more use of gills not taking it away. If axie have to come up often for more for air then the gills are useless. So less gill means less oxygen not too much . Gills health responding to low oxygen, water toxics level, bad ph level, hard or soft water, fungus spores. One of my albino lost the gills before from staying in the tank that has no bubble oxygen only just very good filter (all toxic level are all 0). I didn't know what happened at first so I lower temperature more (he was in 68f so then I lower it to 58f ) nothing happened, added Indian almond leaf extract which should help with boosting slim coat and fight off fungus spores. Gills still not showing. So I tried melafix ( all my axie gill normally will soften relax with just a few drop of melafix) well my albino had a few little short fan gills coming out but still not growing just only relaxing out of what he have left. So then I tried putting him in the tub with aquarium salt overnight ( aquarium salt not table salt) suddenly I see some little gills buds popping up!! I was so excited so I added aquarium salt in the tank just for him and now the promising gills buds starting to popping out everywhere, they looks so pink like cherry blossom. .