Axolotl gill’s frills are small

[Ferretz]

Hi, the frills on my axolotl’s gills are small, is this a sickness or is it ok?

 

[Mackiot]

small frills can be a number of things, from genetics, to highly oxiginated water, to there being too much ammonia in the water. one of the first things i would do is test the water to make sure its not the ammonia burning them away, and if it is i would work on fixing it right away. Her gills look a little curlled in the picture(a sign of stress), so i would make sure its not your water quality affecting her, though it could just be from water flow or some other factor (i dont know your set up)some people have told me it could be affected by diet, an axi on worms is going to be healthier and have fluffier gills than an axi on pellets.
it worried me for the longest time because mine had small gills when i got her, i thought maybe they had been burned away a little bit from the build up ammonia from being shipped(she got delayed and was in the system for three days ;D; ). they grew back a little, but not a lot. talking with different axi owners and my breeder, it turned out to be her genetics, she looks just like her daddy. shes still a very lively gal and i love her, short gills and all.

 

[Ferretz]

Ok, I checked the ammonia which was ok, and did a water change, so do you think it’s probably genetics?

 

[Mackiot]

Best way to find out if it's genetics is to contact your breeder and ask. You could just have high oxygen, or if you recently got him some of it could have been burnt away from ammonia being in a small bag(IF you had him shipped) really there's a lot of factors that could go into short frills/gills. Ask your breeder if it's genetic, if that's not it I'm not too sure other than the oxygen and water parameters.

 

[Hayleyy]

I agree to above, if it's not genetics it could be water parameters or oxygen. What do you have in addition to your filter that could be creating oxygen? Airstones or sponge filter?

 

[Ferretz]

No, nothing other than the filter.

 

[Hayleyy]

Okay that shouldn't be creating too much oxygen then, as long as there isn't too much water flow. Water parameters or genetics then :bowl: