Axolotl Crashes and dies in 5 hours

[lauren]

Well, the white tips weren't regrowth. He crashed while I was at school and was dying when I got home. His entire gills turned white and he was upside down. This morning before I left he was swimming around his tank and his gills were still mostly red. I didn't even have enough time to treat him.

This was the third relapse in a couple months. The first time he turned white and sluggish was when I awoke in the morning after a 2 week furan-2 treatments. I stuck him in the fridge. He healed and ate. Then he was like this again 2 weeks ago and was treated and put in the fridge. He healed and ate. I have a picture of him with normal red gills from the day before yesterday.

Was it something systemic? He was only 12 months old. I had never had a problem with him until he reached adult size.

My fire salamander never has these problems.

 

[brian]

Axies are a little more delicate than other salamanders. Most neotenic amphibians are. What were your water conditions like?

 

[lauren]

Temp was 68, Ammonia 0, Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0, pH 6.6 (it was water change day, so it would have gone up). I think he may have had some developmental problem. 3 of his legs were deformed and never grew back, he never went for food on his own, and he was trying to go through sexual maturity. The Indiana website says thats the worse time for axolotls besides hatching.

The metal part of my tank is getting rusty and the water is already hard here. He might have had a bad reaction?

 

[brian]

Metal part of your tank? How old is the tank? I didn't even think they made them with metal frames any more.

Amphibians react poorly to heavy metals. Heavy metal poisoning is probably what did it. My suggestion to you is to not use that tank for anything aquatic ever again. It'd probably be fine for reptiles (if you have any interest in keeping them), but I'd get a new aquarium for anything aquatic. Make sure you get one that has no metal bits!

 

[lauren]

The tank was new actually, but I think I made a mistake when I bought the cover. I knew that glass covers raise the temp, and I needed a cover since the undergravel filter outputs were so tall. You would think that even though it was metal, that they would have galvanized it since it was made for the 10 gallon tanks.

I'm starting over. I'm going to buy a new tank and use live plants, sand, and an outside filter this time. Hopefully I'll have better luck

 

[brian]

Ah, it was just the cover! I have a lid like that. You can usually get mesh lids for tanks, thats what I have on my axies. Ok then, the tank is safe, but the lid isn't. But, since it's a 10 gallon, you may want to get a new tank anyways, because thats not big enough for a full grown axolotl. Go at least 20 gallons for a pair or individual.

 

[lauren]

It was metal mesh, but obviously it's still metal. I think the water from the output of the underground filter got into it. I think I may get a new tank anyway, since I think the glass is rust stained. My axolotl may have been hyper sensitive (He apparently had the same bad reaction to furan-2 a couple of months ago), but you never know. He deserved better...