Advice on salt baths and leg fungus

[Marked]

Hi guys,

I've had my 2 axolotls for about 5 years and they've never really gotten sick. Recently my black one's leg suddenly looked a bit mangled, and after looking it up it seems to be fungus. Although it looks more like a tear... but I wouldn't know. Here's some pics of him taking a salt bath:

So we've got him separated out in his own box and giving him salt baths. We can't put him in the fridge because its broken and is permanently set to really, really cold. But it's winter here and we have him in a cold room instead (it gets pretty cold, but not too cold as its still inside the house).

Basically I'm looking for reassurance I'm doing this right since I'm a newbie at this. After 2 days in the cold and salt baths the leg looks no better, maybe worse. He also won't eat anything as of today, even if I put a stick on his mouth he will not bite Seems like he doesn't have the energy to move quickly. I just don't want to wake up and he's died.

 

[auntiejude]

That doesn't look like fungus to me, although the picture isn't really clear. I would say stop the salt baths as it looks more like an injury such as a bite. Fridging isn't necessary.

Can you get a picture with better lighting?

 

[Marked]

Ahhh, thanks for your reply. I thought it was a bite originally (obviously looks like one) but when I looked it up, it looked just like the ones with fungus. Anyway, here are some close ups:

So, what can I do about this? The other guy this one shares a tank with is quite aggressive, and I've seen him bite this one's leg before and tug at it.

 

[auntiejude]

Yeah, looks like a bite. Keep him isolated, daily water changes, watch for fungus or infection.

If you have an axie who is agreesive and nippy he could be hungry - what are you feeding and how often?

 

[Marked]

Will do, thank you. Their diet consists mainly of a daily block each of bloodworms. I recently moved houses and they were out of my care for several weeks, and that's when this happened, so I suspect the temporary carer didn't feed them every day.

 

[auntiejude]

They should be fed on earthworms as adults - could be whats making then snappy.