Is this normal?

[AbrahamAxolotl]

Lately, (for the last two weeks or so) I've noticed my axie's gills look curled in the morning. I typically notice right after I wake up. It's been that usually I go to work and when I come home in the afternoon they're back to normal. And it's not everyday, either. In fact, the gills have been fine all week up until today. Last week it was maybe 3 days out of seven that they did that. In addition it's not always ALL of them that are curled, it just happens that TODAY they are. Sometimes it's only 1-3 of them. Someone told me that curled gills don't always mean stress, sometimes they just do that, but that goes against everything I've read about axolotls. What has me confused is that I've had my axie for about 6 months now and this was never a problem until now. Physically, to me, he looks normal - it's just his gills are curling in the morning. Right now they're curled - its about 10:30am - and I'm about to leave for work so I can give an update later if needed.

Params -
temp: 16c to 18.5c controlled by chiller.
ph: 6.0
ammonia: .50 (ive yet to get a cycle going no one knows why its taking so long - i do water changes daily - im changing his later this afternoon so it'll be .25)
nitrites: 0
nitrates: 5.0

I use seachem Prime to lessen the toxicity of the ammonia. There's a water bottle over my filter spraybar so there is no current in the tank.
At night when I turn the lights out he immediately starts playing and swimming around the tank. During the day he sits like a lump. He's about 9in now, was 4/5in when I got him. Belly is normal size. He used to eat every other day - now he'll only eat once every 3-4 days (is that normal, too?)

Why would his gills be doing this?

 

[milahoh]

He looks normal to me, but mine have all sorts of weird gills, from curly to short and fluffy. Lyonna's have always swept forward gracefully. If that is your only indicator of trouble, could simply be the current in that particular part of the tank. Look for ends curling tightly and the fringes shrinking. Those, along with obvious fluffy or dead bits, are definitely signs of a problem.

 

[AbrahamAxolotl]

There's no current anywhere in the tank (I was actually having a problem with mulm from having no current) and am considering adding an airstone to help with oxygenation of the water. That's why I don't really understand why some mornings his gills are that way. I got back from work and once again they were back to normal. He must be doing something at night while he's active that's stressing himself out? I don't really know.