Bleaching Gills

[michael]

I have 5 axolotls all about 4 inches long, Recently one of them lost all color in his gills, they started to lighten and eventually whent as white as the rest of his body, I researched the web and it made it seem like this was normal. however shortly after he died, Now one of the others is having the same issue. they're in a 29gallon tank with a sponge filter, temps about 70degrees I'm changing the water every other day at about 50%

michael

 

[mik]

Michael you shouldn't need to change water every other day. Perhaps once a week is more than enough and then only 20% or so. However, sponge filter (if it one iI'm thinking of) is probably not man enough for tank with axies in.

Are you using water from tap or letting it stand overnight. Tap water contains chlorine to kill bacteria and bugs and it takes time to evaporate off. Your axies are still quite small and will be more suceptible to any problems with water.

If you can give mor info about water source and filter it might help us to provide better advice.

 

[michael]

Hi Michael,
I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with the axolotls. Try backing off a little on feeding. Once every other day is o.k. for the size you have. Salmon pellets can foul water quickly. I suspect the tank isn't balanced and heavy feeding is affecting the water quality. A big sponge filter is o.k. for this size. You will eventually want to move to something with a little more biological filtration. If you think high ammonia is a problem a complete water change is o.k. Eventually you want to try to get the tank so you don't have to change to much water.

 

[michael]

He's colored up a little better this afternoon, THey all eat fine and are pretty active. I'm going to steal an eheim from my fishroom to throw on the tank, but i have to slow the water flow down before i put it on the axies tank. The water that they are in is the runoff from my RO unit, It's passed through activated carbon and down to .5 micron filters I then use a commercial dechlorinator just in case. it has a ph of about 7.8 and conductivity of 200ms

 

[john]

Just make a long spray bar for the Eheim.