What's wrong with his gills?

[Jaade95]

Hi guys. I took on a 5 year old (so she said) melanoid male axo!

He has literally no gills, the lady told me that she rescued him from a friend who had no clue about how to keep them, but they never grew back after "4 years". This is the only information she gave.

He also has a very small white bump (wart looking) under his chin, which you can see in the picture too, anyone know what this is?

I've never seen an axo's gills this bad before, is there anything I can do to help him grow them back

I've only had him since yesterday, but he's so friendly and always comes to the tank when I go past!

I've added a picture, any help would be great!

 

[HayleyK]

He is a wildtype. Some axolotls just have really short gills. The only thing you can do is provide the right water quality and temperature and hope they grow back.

 

[Jaade95]

I always get them two mixed up lol! I hope so, he's a lovely boy but they're practically not there

 

[EmbryH]

As far as colortypes go, an easy way to remember is that any colortype presenting melanoid will lack the golden iris in the eye, as well as iridophores.

Wildtypes always have a golden iris.

Gills usually shrink if their water quality is on the poorer side of things. Since you don't know the water quality of his previous home, you can't know for sure if that was the cause or not. As haley said, the best thing you can do is to keep his water fresh, cold, and clean.

If you ever use live feeders, I would especially guard him from them, as they could nip his gills and complicate the process of regrowth.

 

[Jaade95]

Thank you! I'll make sure his water stays cool and as it should be. He's also pooped out a large-ish piece of gravel, she told me he hadn't been on gravel but I have him in a bare bottom tank and don't even own any blue gravel! Argh