Hi all!
I'm a first time axolotl owner and inherited 2 axolotls this past January. All's been going fairly well with them, but yesterday I looked in my tank and noticed one of my buds (the more shy fella) has some seriously distressed looking gills. His coloration has also changed to a darker top dorsal half and a more white ventral portion. I'm sad to say it's been a bit chaotic in my life with the pandemic, so I didn't notice this sooner, but my other axolotl is doing perfectly fine and they're usually indistinguishable. I've had a chiller in their tank and it maintains around 60-62°F from 6 pm - 9 am. There's been more variation during the day as the chiller is too loud to work over, but the temperature doesn't reach over 72°F (We've moved the tank today to a more distant room so the chiller can run all day and avoid fluctuations in temperature). Their tank is cycled. I checked the water levels and they were as follows: pH 6.8-7.0, Nitrate 10-20 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Ammonia 0 ppm. I've put them in isolation bins set in front of a window a/c and will be doing 100% water changes daily. I tried feeding him frozen blood worms and night crawlers tonight, but he's refusing to eat. I've attached a couple pictures showing his poor gills and also the new body (dis)coloration. I've also included photos of his healthy brother since they were nearly identical until very recently. Any suggestions/input would be super appreciated. I just want to help him feel better and get him back to living his best Alotl life!
I'm a first time axolotl owner and inherited 2 axolotls this past January. All's been going fairly well with them, but yesterday I looked in my tank and noticed one of my buds (the more shy fella) has some seriously distressed looking gills. His coloration has also changed to a darker top dorsal half and a more white ventral portion. I'm sad to say it's been a bit chaotic in my life with the pandemic, so I didn't notice this sooner, but my other axolotl is doing perfectly fine and they're usually indistinguishable. I've had a chiller in their tank and it maintains around 60-62°F from 6 pm - 9 am. There's been more variation during the day as the chiller is too loud to work over, but the temperature doesn't reach over 72°F (We've moved the tank today to a more distant room so the chiller can run all day and avoid fluctuations in temperature). Their tank is cycled. I checked the water levels and they were as follows: pH 6.8-7.0, Nitrate 10-20 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Ammonia 0 ppm. I've put them in isolation bins set in front of a window a/c and will be doing 100% water changes daily. I tried feeding him frozen blood worms and night crawlers tonight, but he's refusing to eat. I've attached a couple pictures showing his poor gills and also the new body (dis)coloration. I've also included photos of his healthy brother since they were nearly identical until very recently. Any suggestions/input would be super appreciated. I just want to help him feel better and get him back to living his best Alotl life!
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