Gills

[joão]

hi , I´m from portugal and here the temperature is really high, like 38Cº in the streets cause it´s summer. I have axolotls , so I bought an air conditioned, to cool down the temperature of the room in wich I have my axies. The temperature of the aquarium is in 19 Cº so I think it´s fine, the amonia nitrites and nitrates are fine too, but my axies gills just seem to look dried, not all of them but some. they were in the fridge before I bought the air conditioned, and they were fine with fluffy red gills, but now they sometimes don´t have any colour on their gills, it´s like when they are in the same place for a long time the gills turn white , and when they start moving their gills turn red , is it normal? what I´m I doing wrong. Some help, please...( sorry if some words are not correctly written)

 

[hayley-jane]

Hi

19C is great as a temperature, so it can't be that.

I've never heard of the gills changing colour depending on whether they are moving or not.

At the moment my little axie has lost the colour in his gills too

- but it seems he's just constipated,

so I have put him in the fridge.

Sorry you will have to wait for someone who knows more than me...

 

[joão]

thanks
by the way i´ve seen your tank It´s great.
I´ve also read your tread, how do they get constipated? what are the symptoms?

 

[joão]

Can anybody tell me why do gills look more or less fluffier?

 

[hayley-jane]

The symptoms of constipation are (as far as I know):

sluggish behaviour - loss of appetite - rounded belly

I guess its caused by them not digesting their food properly (like us when we get it lol),
but it can also be caused by them swallowing gravel, which is why most people here recommend sand, as it does not happen with sand.

As for the gills, there is a thread somewhere about that. Something about the oxygen levels in the water. If there is a lot of oxygen in the water the gills will decrease and look less fluffy, and if there is a lack of oxygen the gills will grow and look more fluffy.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the comment on my tank

Do you have a picture of your tank and axie?

 

[cynthia]

João Nunes - I have noticed that when my light colored axolotls (golden and white) sleep/appear to be sleeping their gills sometimes fade a little. I have not noticed this on the dark colored axolotls, their gills are dark all the time.

If you see that their gills are faded all the time when they used to be red, it could be a sign of anemia or illness.

As far as "fluffy" gills go; gill change is often your first warning of illness or bad water conditions. The filiments may look "crispy" and curl up and pretty much start to disappear. Bad water conditions (high ammonia, nitrite, very high nitrate) can turn lovely fluffy gills in to bare shrinking gill stocks.

Some axolotls just don't have as fluffy of gills as others. So always having small gills is not necessarily a sign of illness or bad water quality.

 

[joão]

thanks, but I´ve notice that when I used to have my axies in the fridge , without filter or air pump, they used to look ok , and now once they are in their tank they seem to have a little bit of dried and crispy bad gills , I wonder what can be , beside water condition, they are also eating well. I really don´t know. Yesterday I discovered that there´s one university here, near me that studies axos so I´m thinking on going there, and ask more questions...

 

[cynthia]

João Nunes - Please let us know what you find out.