Do they sound alright?

[adelle]

i got my axies today. i know its too early but not only has the tank cleared up no end since letting alot of bubbles into the water from the filter and taking some water out, but the shop said they may not be able to keep them as theyre not selling very well.
i know bad things happen to unwanted shop animals over here so i figured they would at least have a chance here. i got one active one that swims everywhere, and one with just stumps for gills, 2 on one side and 1 on the other. im abit worried about him. Anyway, I called the small one Wisp and the big no-gilled one Slinky. I fed them brine shrimp today. But the black in the stomach in the little one seems really black. really really black. The bigger one you cant really see anything. plus how often should they be coming up for air? the temp is on 20c.

 

[connor]

The black in the stomach could be gravel that it had eaten in its previous tank

 

[adelle]

They had sand in the previous tank the same as i got for them. its called gravel but its very very fine and gritty like sand. i know the little one has eaten a little of it and spat tiny bits out but that should pass through shouldnt it?
with the air thing.. there are alot of bubbles coming from the filter onto the surface of the water so that should give more oxygen for the one with the weird gills right? and i lowered the water level. and am i right to say the frills on his gills should grow back in good time cos hes been like it for a couple of weeks at least in the shop. looks like he got just one very small stump on one side.
The little one is very wiggly, he does laps around the tank, has his favourite corner and seems very interested in my cat.

 

[kapo]

Connor don't automatically blame gravel if you've never had axies before. Young axies have translucent stomachs and the black in their stomach could very well be food.

I'm currently raising 20 axie babies (1.5-2cm long) and their stomach contents are black when they eat mozzy larvae, orange when they eat baby brineshrimp.

My sister's who I'm axie sitting at the moment (3.5 inches long) still have translucent stomachs. The following things are fed to them which show as very black in their stomachs (live mozzy larvae, live earthworm, frozen brineshrimp, frozen bloodworm); they're also fed live bloodworm which shows up bright red in their stomach.

Adelle, one thing you should learn in future is never "rescue" axies as they will just get in others to replace them.

Your tank has not cycled therefore you will have problems.

You have to be rigorous at keeping your tank safe enough for your axies to live in now.

The main thing you have to do is daily 20-30% waterchanges till your tank cycles which as you were told in previous posts takes several weeks. The gills will eventually grow back. When they grow back because they have been damaged through either being nibbled at or poor water quality at the petshop then you may find that they are stunted or "weird looking".

Axies don't see very well.