Gills Shrinking

[alyna]

Hello everyone!

As of late I've noticed my axies gills have gone from full and fluffy to almost nonexistent. I've read that this could be a good or bad sign, but I'm not sure how to tell exactly. Her water conditions are near perfect besides pH being just a tad higher than ideal. I changed her water recently and tested it nearly every day for the last week and there have been no changes. Her tail isn't curled nor are her gills curled forward. She is very active, eats (very quickly) every single time I feed her, and poops regularly. There's been no sign of stress or anything so I'm pretty baffled at her gills shrinking. I'm not sure how my tank could be "well oxygenated," if anyone minds explaining exactly what this means. I've included a few photos, please excuse the extremely orange/yellow tint, this isn't anywhere what it looks like in person. I have a high quality potato as a camera.

Thanks so much!

 

[Fimbriae]

I know you mentioned your water parameters are near perfect, but what are they exactly...

• ph
• ammonia
• nitrite
• nitrate

What kind of filtration are you using, and what type of filter media?
What is the water temperature and what type of food are you feeding?
How big is she and what is her approximate age?

Well oxygenated water in an aquarium could mean:

• An abundance of live plants
• Excessive water surface agitation (with filter outputs etc)
• Aeration through use of an air pump/stone
• High flow or current (though this usually goes back to surface agitation)

Haha, potato camera. That's cute.

 

[AussieLux]

Hi there Alyna,

As Fimbriae suggests the parameters and tank environs are the big factors. If they are within the right ranges then you might have to look outside the box like I did for possible answers.

I saw your post and couldn't help but think of SOME of the similarities of the onset of what happened to my Lux. He started out like this with the gills thinning then getting frayed and then the floating when the gills went down to almost nothing.
Parameters were always great and in the end until I moved him into a hospital tank did the shrinkage stop and then start to regrow. It might be entirely unrelated but was worth a mention. Where did the tank come from and are the components in the tank new and were they sterilized?

Have a look at my post for the full progress. In the end the guess that is most likely was something leaching into the tank, from the porous silicon sealant (possibly methylene blue) that was used in the tank when it had prior goldfish inhabitants. Other guess was also possibly something in the sand as there was a case of similar symptoms on here where the case seemed similar. It something to consider I guess if your water and environ parameters are something that could be factored out.

My thread
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...ls-gills-shrinking-i-cant-figure-out-why.html

The thread on sand
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...000-axolotl-sick-because-tank.html#post451293

Let us know what your tank environs are like and how your little fella is going.