Can metamorphosis be halted/reversed?

[Coggie]

About a year and a half ago, I was convinced my oldest axie was morphing. I had clumsily dropped his tank while cleaning (without him inside it, thankfully), breaking it and the filter. As I couldn't get a new one right away, my Gilby spent almost two weeks in an unfiltered rubbermaid tub. When I got him in his new setup, he spent the next few weeks shedding like crazy, and his face and tail seemed to be changing shape. His gills shortened and lost much of their bushiness, and his feet seemed way too developed. However, this slowed over the next six months or so, then stopped. Now his face and tail look normal, though his gills are still less bushy than my others'. He has also lost the bluish tint he had while he was shedding all the time, and has gone back to his original healthy color.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures while all this was happening, so I guess I can't prove that I wasn't just being paranoid (as I really really really did not want him to morph), but having raised other amphibians from larvae in the past, I was almost positive that that's what was happening. I haven't been able to find any accounts of similar things happening, though, so I was wondering if anyone has heard of metamorphosis halting if conditions are changed early enough?

 

[Morrison]

Do you have a picture of your axie? Morphing is pretty rare, maybe it's something else we can help you with.

As far as I know it's not possible to stop or reverse metamorphosis while started.

 

[LJay]

I don't think that is possible :/ worth a google tho

 

[Coggie]

I knew that morphing was rare but I was worried that perhaps the water quality in the tub was poor enough to make his body think it had little choice. As I mentioned, he started looking better about a year ago, and now he looks pretty much normal to me:

(excuse the bubbles and debris- just did a water change)

 

[Coggie]

Maybe the excessive shedding had something to do with it? His face looked really squished, as though it was being squeezed, kind of like some of my geckos' toes when they're constricted by a difficult shed. Perhaps something similar was happening to his gills?? I wish I had taken pictures, as his gills definitely were greatly reduced at the time, as was the webbing between his toes.

 

[Niels D]

I've got a leucistic animal which lacks a lot of it's crest compared to the other two animals. She's got very small gills and a pointy snout as well. She was looking like that when I got her and that's 3 years ago, so I know she will probably remain in this state. If I didn't I would have thought she was starting to morph, but I guess some axolotls have smaller crests and gills. Your animals looks a lot "better" than mine. If my ugly betty gets out of hiding I will make a picture. If your axolotl starts to wink at you, than you should prepare a terrestrial tank of course. :happy:

 

[oceanblue]

Metamorphosis is a process which involves numerous interconnected processes and alterations in an amphibians metabolism and some of the processes are mediated by steroid hormones of the cortisone family (stress hormones).

Some of these processes may reverse or stop and gills and fins can regenerate but an animal that has gone into morphing involving jaw changes, complete loss of fins and gills will never revert to larval form.

There are drugs which will inhibit the main thyroid hormone component of metamorphosis and giant tadpoles of several species have been produced. In Xenopus if you withdraw the drug, then they start to morph but because the skeleton has calcified in the tadpole form they do not morph properly and usually die. I guess it is possible to stop metamorphosis midway through but it is likely to result in a not quite anything animal on continuous medication.

 

[Niels D]

This is our Ugly Betty. Her gills are really small and she lacks most of her fins. She's not morphing though, she's been this way for at least three years. She's over 26 cm long.

 

[Coggie]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I know it was a pretty far-fetched idea, but I could not figure out what might have been going on with him. He was already about 4 years old when all this happened, so I assumed that any last physical changes that accompany maturity would have occurred already.

Niels, has Ugly Betty (who is beautiful, by the way) always looked that way? That's about what Gilby looked like for a while, but his fins and gills have all regenerated now.

 

[Niels D]

When I got her she was looking like this allready, but I don't know how she looked before that. She's been in my care for three years and she hasn't developed more of her fins or gills. I must say that there are a lot of plants and a strong current at the surface in my tank, so there must be a lot of oxygen in the water. This will not encourage gill development to my knowledge.