HELP! My axie has red veins all over her body!

[swiftrat]

Does anyone know what is causing this?

+++ jpeg +++ 24902 +++ Veiny Head +++

Her tail is veiny as well:

+++ jpeg +++ 24903 +++ Veiny Tail +++

Also, her gills have been getting shorter and are starting to curl inwards:

+++ jpeg +++ 24904 +++ Curled Gills +++

There are more pics (including the ones listed here) of the axie at http://www.mistrunner.com/swiftrat/axolotls

The tank water parameters are all fine, pH is 7.2, Ammonia = 0, temp is 26 degs (it's summer here and I been doing my best with bottles of frozen water to help keep the temps from hitting 30 degs)

I have 3 axies, all have been eating feeder guppies and the occasional earthworm, but it's just my leucistic female (pictured) thats veiny.

PS: How do you encourage gill growth with axies? I see some folks here have axies with big long gill stalks with bushes of red/purple gills, but all my axies have short stumpy ones.

(Message edited by Swiftrat on October 24, 2004)

 

[nathan]

swift,
from my experience, your axie looks stressed. first of all, water temp is way too high. 25 should be your absolute maximum, i'm surprised she isn't half dead by now.
Also guppies are definately not the best food to feed them, they may carry disease and parasites, try organic earthworms, pellets and the occasional tubifex freeze dried worm cubes.
you should check out your other ones as well, reason why you can see the veins on the leucistic is because the colour of the skin allows it, the reason the veins are showing like that is because she is stressed may it be the water quality or the food, not sure, i can say it points very strongly to your water temps, and because you can't see the veins on your others, don't mistake that they're not feeling the same way.
Gills will grow as the axie grows...

 

[mik]

To get water temp down in short term. Put your axie ina bucket or container and put her in fridge for a while (overnight won't harm).

I'd put all 3 in fridge overnight.

Can you have some where you can store a lot of water and keep it cool, like a cellar?
Take the tank lid off & position a desk fan to blow constantly over the water surface. It will make a huge difference. Ensure the fan can't fall in the water.

Regards

 

[swiftrat]

Yeah, the water temps here are horrible... our aussie summer heat in the tropics here is pretty high at the moment. I can try the fan-on-water thing, but right now, I have a few 1.25L bottles of frozen water in it.

I can try the axie-in-the-fridge tip, but how can I stop them from splashing water about if one decided to thrash around a bit. *thinks about laying a towel in the fridge and sitting a large kritter keeper in it* Would oxygen be a issue? I would have to cover them up with a lid, and there'd be no filter/airstone running.

 

[mik]

Swiftrat, the fridge is ok. Trust me, I have done this with one of mine previously. I used a 2L ice cream container and left loose fitting lid. The whole thing sat in the salad crisper-draw-thing at the bottom. Plus I am lucky enough to have 3 fridges and the wife can't complain if she doesn't know...lol

There's pleanty of o2 in water and the fridge for your axie overnight