Broken Gills

[Beck]

Hi All,

We just got our newest addition on Sunday, a little orange girl we named Darwin. We picked her up from an aquarium that has been great to us, and their axies are very vigorous and healthy looking (and on lovely big river rocks etc). She has been hiding the last couple of days for most of the time, and last night when I fed her, I noticed the tips of her gill branches (is that what they are?) are missing their skin and a couple of the tips look like they are hanging on by a thread. We don't think our other axie is to blame, as he keeps pretty much away from her and when they are together, we have not witnessed any tussles or anything.

Is she is in pain do you think? Is there anything I can do to help?

The first one we got was missing half his gills anyway, and they have grown back beautifully, but I have never seen missing skin before!

 

[Kaysie]

Sometimes axolotls will reduce their gills when they're moved to a new tank. That is, if your new tank is more oxygenated than her old tank, she doesn't need as much gill space, and the tips of the gills are dying. This is pretty normal.

Just keep an eye on it, and watch for fuzzy fungus.

 

[cloth]

Have you got them seperate to quarantine them for a month or so to make sure the new arrival is ok?