Can Axolotls have natural forward gills?

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proberge

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Hey Everyone,
I am kinda stumped with one of my Axolotls. When he was a baby 3 inches maybe his gills would never be forward always straight up but as growing up I have noticed that most of the time his gills are forward or curled, I do notice the gills are more straight when he is active and eating and curled when resting. Just seeing if you all have ever experienced this before.
 

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the muscle that controls the gills is at the base of the gill stalks, this means that when they are long they tend to curl naturally with no control from the axolotl.
it becomes a concern when the gill are bent from the base forward as if to hide the head.
provided the parameters are correct and the water is kept oxygenated there shouldn't be any cause for concern.
 
Last edited:
wolfen said:
the muscle that controls the gills is at the base of the gill stalks, this means that when they are long they tend to curl naturally with no control from the axolotl.
it becomes a concern when the gill are bent from the base forward as if to hide the head.
provided the parameters are correct and the water is kept oxygenated there should be any cause for concern.
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Okay perfect he has always had super long gills compared to my other ones. It doesn’t look like they bend from the base so maybe they are just too long and are droopy.
 
proberge said:
Okay perfect he has always had super long gills compared to my other ones. It doesn’t look like they bend from the base so maybe they are just too long and are droopy.
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Do you think my filter flow is too strong maybe pushing the gills forward. I recently changed it to a biomaster 350 from my fluval 307 which I thought had lower flow than my old one.
 

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proberge said:
Do you think my filter flow is too strong maybe pushing the gills forward. I recently changed it to a biomaster 350 from my fluval 307 which I thought had lower flow than my old one.
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there does seem to be some water flow there, although the water movement is probably moving his gills it might not be enough to be bothering him as some axolotls seem to like a gentle flow of water.
the filters are around about the same flow (only a difference of 50 lph).
 
wolfen said:
there does seem to be some water flow there, although the water movement is probably moving his gills it might not be enough to be bothering him as some axolotls seem to like a gentle flow of water.
the filters are around about the same flow (only a difference of 50 lph).
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Okay thank you. I think I am just overthinking things here haha. I keep a watch and see if I need to turn down the filter or block some of the output. But like you said I don’t think he’s bothered by it since he will just sit under the highest flow part of the tank and or on top of the airstone in the tank.
 
My axolotl is similar. That first set of gills on each side has a gentle forward curl. It's always been like that. His water is good and he does everything I'd expect of a happy axolotl. As long as they're no more than that, I don't worry.
 

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