Curled in gills
I put sick axolotl as I’m aware curled gills is a bad sign, but he doesn’t actually seem sick
Backstory. My son, 6 has been obsessed with axolotls for 2 years. We did research & decided to adopt one. We adopted him from a family that was moving. Obviously my son doesn’t actually look after him, we do. The lady said they got his water tested every 3 months at the pet store and put in what they tell them to. She also said she does a 25% water change every 3 weeks. We are aware this isn’t great. We have had to cycle the tank with him in for obvious reasons. His tank is 26 or 29 gallons (I can’t remember which sorry!) He is apparently 2 years old, unsure of their gender, we just started calling him he instinctively I suppose
It has taken 3 weeks but everything is in normal range but the nitrates. They are a lot better, they are now 20ppm, which I’m aware isn’t great but we’re working on it, and it has been coming down slowly. We put in 4 live plants when we got him, and have added a few more last week. We also added 2 plants that float on the top (unsure of any of the plant names my partner handled that side of things).
We are getting a cooler as the water sometimes climbs to 19C, it’s usually 18C which I’m also aware is the high side of normal, hence wanting a cooler. We currently put frozen water bottles in the tank
He has had what I assume must’ve been constipation once in this 3 weeks as his butt was floating a bit. But he also wasn’t really eating. I read online to give him salmon. We did that, he ended up pooping and now eats as normal. We have not continued to feed him salmon. I read a lot on reddit about salmon being good for constipation but then someone said it’s not good for them.
My concerns are we adopted him with one of his gills curled forward. His water is getting better, yet it seems to be curling forward even more and one of the gills on the same side has also started curling. The other side seems quite straight though
I’m also concerned he has a slight shade of blue on the side of his stomach on one side which he has had since we got him
Ps. I have removed the excess food he didn’t eat, these photos were taken immediately after feeding him :)
Edit to add we are testing his water everyday currently. We bought a testing kit.