Question: Identification Help?

[Arwen9]

A friend of mine who knew of my passion with various animals gave me a...salamander? of some sort that they got from a little stand at the mall. (which has now disappeared, lol)

After some research, I believed what I had was an axotl. Until about a week ago.

My "axie" lost his gills first. I thought it might have been the water (though the ammonia test said it was a-ok, the water temp was a little low bc of some nasty weather that made the room his/her tank was in too cold. I moved him to a different spot in the house and thought the gills would come back. Then moved him back once I got the water back to normal. Oh, and I've been feeding him a cube of bloodworm every three days.

Well...now he's lost his dorsal fin completely. His gills didn't come back and they're just nubs now. He...shed his skin? (whitish bits of stuff came off his hide and then he ate it)

His tail is rounded, snout is rounded, eyes potrude. He swims to the top of the water and gulps at the air and when I take him out....the webbing in his toes is gone, his throat moves like he's breathing (which he wasn't doing before), his skin is thicker and almost...sticky? And his legs seem different. (before when I held him while changing his water or whatever, he'd flop like a fish. Now he climbs everywhere)

And he's turning greenish-yellow. He doesn't have stripes (dark spots instead) is it possible it's not an axie, but a tiger? Or, is it something I'm doing wrong?

Give me a second and I'll attach some pics.

 

[Arwen9]

A friend of mine brought me some sort of salamander at Christmas. From a stand at a mall. *sigh* So, I've no idea what it is.

After doing some research, I thought it might be an axie and have been treating it accordingly and it seemed at the time to be thriving. (it was very thin and now it's filling out nicely, though I'm not entirely sure whether it's a he/she)

I feed him a cube of bloodworms every three days, save on Saturday/Sunday I give him a few newt pellets for variety.

About a week ago, my tank location got really cold after this nasty weather hit the midwest. I moved my "axie" from his tank to a warmer tank (around the 17-18 C) after I noted how cold the water was and that his gills seemed to be shrinking. I thought maybe it was stress from the colder temps. (and the ammonia level was a-ok, so...)

A day or two later, once I had both tanks at the same temp, I moved him back to his original place.

Well, his gills have now shrank down to tiny nubs and he hangs out at the top of the water, gulping at the air. I can actually see his throat moving as if he were breathing without gills (which he wasn't doing before)

I've been keeping track and over the last couple of days or so: his dorsal fin vanished completely, he's not eating as much as before, he shed his skin, his snout is rounder, his eyes protrude, the webbing between his toes is nearly gone, his skin feels tougher and...sticky? He's WAY more active than he was before.

And weirdest of all, he's changing color. He was a dusky sort of dark brown, with black spots on his sides and a belly that was a dusky grayish-white. His belly now is turning almost....green or yellow, with black spots. There's no stripes or bands, but the coloration seems to fit.

Could I have a tiger and not know it? Or is my axie morphing? Or is it something to do with sickness?

Utter newbie here when it comes to these critters. :happy:

Pics below. The last pic is the one with just his/her belly.

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Definitely some form of tiger species. Here is a caresheet for tiger salamanders.

 

[Arwen9]

Is he morphing then? And if so, is there anything special I should do?

I've already drained his tank (it was fully aquatic) to about 3-5 inches deep and added some rocks for him to climb up out of the water.

Do I need to feed him anything different, or keep the water warmer, or just leave him alone? I don't want to mess up the morphing, as I assume it's a rather delicate process.

 

[Greatwtehunter]

He looks to have completed the morphing process already, or is awfully close. The caresheet I linked above will go into detail on what you need to do for a setup and what to feed him.

 

[Arwen9]

okay, I read over it and it looks like most of what I have already will work. (though all the plants and filters and other aquatic things I bought for an axie don't seem to work anymore. grr)

But at least he's not sick or anything. I was worried I'd done something wrong.

All right then, I'll keep an eye on him and see about continuing to make his tank more terrestrial, with hides and places to burrow and all of that.

Thanks very much for the help, Justin.

 

[Molch]

it sounds indeed that you have a tiger that is now metamorphosing. I don't think you've done anything wrong; in fact, from your description it sounds as though his metamorphosis is pretty textbook The most important thing at this point is to lower the water depth to just a couple inches and to give him some land to crawl up on. Once fully metamorphosed, he'll be a land dweller who enjoys a good dig as well.
There's a care sheet for tigers here:

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander

can you post a pic? That would be cool...

 

[Arwen9]

whoops. lol

I thought this one vanished, so I went to the other forum. My bad.