# Do Axolotls Die if picked out of the water?



## abadi

Ive been looking for the answer for ages..
Do Axolotls die if picked out of the water like fish?


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## PrettyxPerfection

no they don't, not straight away, aslong as you scoop them up to transport them into another tank, but I would not reccomend picking an axolotl up with your hands as the soap you use can damage them, I wear latex gloves to scoop mine up as I could not find a net big enough.

But sometimes my one Axolotl used to sit ontop of his filter with his head out of the water.


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## abadi

PrettyxPerfection said:


> no they don't, not straight away, aslong as you scoop them up to transport them into another tank, but I would not reccomend picking an axolotl up with your hands as the soap you use can damage them, I wear latex gloves to scoop mine up as I could not find a net big enough.
> 
> But sometimes my one Axolotl used to sit ontop of his filter with his head out of the water.


On my question i meant do they ever get out of the water like other aquatic amphibians or they are like fish?
Oh and do they have lungs?


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## PrettyxPerfection

It is not natural for and axolotl to come out of water, but under the right conditions and given the option axolotls will come on to land,and become a salamander, but then why would you want that as they will loose their beautiful gills :whistling2:


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## The T Lord

PrettyxPerfection said:


> It is not natural for and axolotl to come out of water, but under the right conditions and given the option axolotls will come on to land,and become a salamander, but then why would you want that as they will loose their beautiful gills :whistling2:


Which are effectivley burnt off in the proccess :bash:

that wasn't a pop at you btw, just something that majorly annoys me :lol2:


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## PrettyxPerfection

The T Lord said:


> Which are effectivley burnt off in the proccess :bash:
> 
> that wasn't a pop at you btw, just something that majorly annoys me :lol2:


It alright

I thought they just dried out and dropped off :blush:


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## bellabelloo

Axolotl tend to leave their water if their water conditions are poor. Its a way to escape. The fin and gills are absorbed and their eyes become more bulbous, their skin also changes . Its the similar to when newts/ frogs etc morph. If a non morphing axolotl leaves the water it tends to damage their skin and gills, causing risk of infection and so on. They can breath out of water. I know of one axolotl that some how got out of its tank, it had no lid so it was presumed to have been startled and launched itself right out. It had been kept in a damp basement and this re-appeared a month or so after it went missing.


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## The T Lord

PrettyxPerfection said:


> It alright
> 
> I thought they just dried out and dropped off :blush:


Nah they wouldn't leave the water unless the metamorphise if thats the correct term.
Basically bad water conditions cause them to "evolve" in a short time-span to be able to live on land, eyes get larger, skin able to withheld moisture aswell i think. gills are "burnt" off and lungs are developed.: victory:


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## PrettyxPerfection

bellabelloo said:


> Axolotl tend to leave their water if their water conditions are poor. Its a way to escape. The fin and gills are absorbed and their eyes become more bulbous, their skin also changes . Its the similar to when newts/ frogs etc morph. If a non morphing axolotl leaves the water it tends to damage their skin and gills, causing risk of infection and so on. They can breath out of water. I know of one axolotl that some how got out of its tank, it had no lid so it was presumed to have been startled and launched itself right out. It had been kept in a damp basement and this re-appeared a month or so after it went missing.


 
:gasp: Well I heard in the wild they will walk across mud and stuff like that to get to a new water hole but :gasp: without water for a month, my axolotl i lost the other night R.I.P Axel........ he loved sitting ontop of his filter and stuck his head out of the water, but I think it was because I always fed him ontop of the filter :whistling2:

Don't you need warmth or some sort of heat source for them to come out of water aswell?? this is what I got told anyway I never tried it and never want to just courious = )


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## tomwilson

they on metemorphise if they are injected with iodine, they lack the hormone needed to change into a terestrial salamander (which contains iodine), there is also the odd anomaly in which a genetic mistake will allow an axolotl to metamophise, there are a few theories on why this is the case 1 is that the axolotl is a hybrid species between the mexican mole salamander and the tiger salamander, another is that the natural home of the axolotl has been deviod of iodine for so long that they have become unable to naturaly synthsize the hormone needed to make the change between larval form and adult form. another theory is that the only food source was found in the water and they have evolved to exploite that.

t lord where has the burnng of come from, it is true that if an axolotl transforms from its larval form into an adult salamander it body is put under alot of stress that it is not desighnedfor and it will half its natural life time but i have never heard it put this way.

op what do you mean by kept out of water, do you mean to catch it in a net and put it into another body of water or to kep it in a terrestrial set up


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## abadi

PrettyxPerfection said:


> It is not natural for and axolotl to come out of water, but under the right conditions and given the option axolotls will come on to land,and become a salamander, but then why would you want that as they will loose their beautiful gills :whistling2:


Im not really a big fan of axolotls at the point so i dont like their hairy gills, and after your comments axolotls are more likely FISH and nothing special about them than having a salamander shaped body


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## abadi

bellabelloo said:


> Axolotl tend to leave their water if their water conditions are poor. Its a way to escape. The fin and gills are absorbed and their eyes become more bulbous, their skin also changes . Its the similar to when newts/ frogs etc morph. If a non morphing axolotl leaves the water it tends to damage their skin and gills, causing risk of infection and so on. They can breath out of water. I know of one axolotl that some how got out of its tank, it had no lid so it was presumed to have been startled and launched itself right out. It had been kept in a damp basement and this re-appeared a month or so after it went missing.


Yes i understood your point but what do you mean by bad water conditions? like.. describe it :blush:


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## Ben W

abadi said:


> Im not really a big fan of axolotls at the point so i dont like their hairy gills, and after your comments axolotls are more likely FISH and nothing special about them than having a salamander shaped body


 
If thats what you think, then best you stick to fish, by the sound of it, at least you cant see their gills


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## abadi

Ben W said:


> If thats what you think, then best you stick to fish, by the sound of it, at least you cant see their gills


I dont blame whoever loves them, Everyone has a choice/personality


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## bellabelloo

Bad water conditions can include high temperature, much above 20 degrees causes problems. A dirty tank where waste has not been cleaned up. An un- cycled tank. Axolotl will morph with out iodine injections too. Most morphed axolotl are the result of something being wrong with their enviroment. I would like to add 'forcing' an axolotl to morph generally reduces their life expectancy greatly.


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