Help? Is my axie sick? Picture

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

Thank you. I don’t really know who else to contact, so hopefully someone else sees this thread. I’ll try to reach out to the person I bought it from, and I’ll get back to you as soon as she’s better. Thank you so much for your help! These are my first axolotls so I’m not really sure how to deal with it other than a salt bath.

Hey sorry to reach out so late, I don't always check the forum over the weekends. How is your axie doing? Have you attempted a salt bath yet?

Generally the rule for salt baths is 2-3 teaspoons of salt per liter (about 4 cups) of water. Make sure the salt is completely dissolved. I usually set up 3 tubs; one for the salt solution, one for rinsing and the other as the quarantine tub. Only place them in the salt solution for about 10 mins.

Salt baths can be harsh on their gills and slime coat so monitor them closely.

 

[Murk]

Maybe I missed it, but you have two axolotls that are affected?

The one you first posted a picture of, and now the second one as well? Neither look particularly healthy.

I second salt baths, asap.

Salt baths don't do anything if you don't remove the source of the problems, though. I don't think I've seen your water parameters listed anywhere yet.
What are your ammonia, nitrites, nitrates values?
Temperature?
pH, GH if you can.
Do you use a dechlorinator and if so, which? If not, why not?
What do you usually feed, and how much?
How do you do maintenance? Water changes (how much and how often)?
Is there a noticeable size difference between the two?

 

[Reptile.Riley]

Hey sorry to reach out so late, I don't always check the forum over the weekends. How is your axie doing? Have you attempted a salt bath yet?

Generally the rule for salt baths is 2-3 teaspoons of salt per liter (about 4 cups) of water. Make sure the salt is completely dissolved. I usually set up 3 tubs; one for the salt solution, one for rinsing and the other as the quarantine tub. Only place them in the salt solution for about 10 mins.

Salt baths can be harsh on their gills and slime coat so monitor them closely.

Ok. My aquarium salt should be here tomorrow, and I’ll set it up as soon as I can.

 

[Reptile.Riley]

Maybe I missed it, but you have two axolotls that are affected?

The one you first posted a picture of, and now the second one as well? Neither look particularly healthy.

I second salt baths, asap.

Salt baths don't do anything if you don't remove the source of the problems, though. I don't think I've seen your water parameters listed anywhere yet.
What are your ammonia, nitrites, nitrates values?
Temperature?
pH, GH if you can.
Do you use a dechlorinator and if so, which? If not, why not?
What do you usually feed, and how much?
How do you do maintenance? Water changes (how much and how often)?
Is there a noticeable size difference between the two?

Yes I have two that are affected, and I plan on doing the salt bath tomorrow. The ammonia in their forty gallon is at around 2.5. We’re working on getting that down. I’m not sure about the other stats, but I’ll test my water tomorrow morning. I use Amquel, I feed them every 2 days as much as they’ll eat before either they stop or I get annoyed which is usually between 5-15 peices, they have axolotl pellets and I think the brand is Cinvert Aquatics but the package is damaged so I can’t read it that well. They haven’t successfully lived in their tank yet, we had them in a ten gallon for about 2 months until we thought we had the forty gallon cycled properly. We put them in and the ammonia spiked, so now they’re both in two gallon storage bins. There is no size difference and they came from the same batch of eggs.

 

[Murk]

Yes I have two that are affected, and I plan on doing the salt bath tomorrow. The ammonia in their forty gallon is at around 2.5. We’re working on getting that down. I’m not sure about the other stats, but I’ll test my water tomorrow morning. I use Amquel, I feed them every 2 days as much as they’ll eat before either they stop or I get annoyed which is usually between 5-15 peices, they have axolotl pellets and I think the brand is Cinvert Aquatics but the package is damaged so I can’t read it that well. They haven’t successfully lived in their tank yet, we had them in a ten gallon for about 2 months until we thought we had the forty gallon cycled properly. We put them in and the ammonia spiked, so now they’re both in two gallon storage bins. There is no size difference and they came from the same batch of eggs.

OK, but since they're not currently in the forty gallon: what are the ammonia levels in the tanks they are currently in?

The other parameters could be useful, especially temperature.
Whether or not you use a dechlorinator (and which one) is relevant as well.

As mentioned salt baths are great at removing fungus, but if you then put them back into dirty water the fungus will just immediately grow back.



Could you also take a picture of the wildtype from above, please?

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

Yes I have two that are affected, and I plan on doing the salt bath tomorrow. The ammonia in their forty gallon is at around 2.5. We’re working on getting that down. I’m not sure about the other stats, but I’ll test my water tomorrow morning. I use Amquel, I feed them every 2 days as much as they’ll eat before either they stop or I get annoyed which is usually between 5-15 peices, they have axolotl pellets and I think the brand is Cinvert Aquatics but the package is damaged so I can’t read it that well. They haven’t successfully lived in their tank yet, we had them in a ten gallon for about 2 months until we thought we had the forty gallon cycled properly. We put them in and the ammonia spiked, so now they’re both in two gallon storage bins. There is no size difference and they came from the same batch of eggs.

2.5ppm for ammonia is lethal. anything above .5 ppm and they should be tubbed immediately. they should also be getting daily 100% water changes on the tubs they are in now if you arent already doing that. Those areas may very well not be fungus at all, but blisters from ammonia burn.

 

[Reptile.Riley]

2.5ppm for ammonia is lethal. anything above .5 ppm and they should be tubbed immediately. they should also be getting daily 100% water changes on the tubs they are in now if you arent already doing that. Those areas may very well not be fungus at all, but blisters from ammonia burn.

They’ve been out of the forty gallon for about two weeks. They were only in there for about a day before I saw their health was declining. They’re tubbed, and one is fridged.

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

They’ve been out of the forty gallon for about two weeks. They were only in there for about a day before I saw their health was declining. They’re tubbed, and one is fridged.

Have you been doing daily 100% water changes on their tubs?

 

[Reptile.Riley]

Have you been doing daily 100% water changes on their tubs?

Yes. I’m going to change to twice a day though because I just tested the ammonia on the tank and it’s at 1.0. Might even do three times a day.

 

[Reptile.Riley]

OK, but since they're not currently in the forty gallon: what are the ammonia levels in the tanks they are currently in?

The other parameters could be useful, especially temperature.
Whether or not you use a dechlorinator (and which one) is relevant as well.

As mentioned salt baths are great at removing fungus, but if you then put them back into dirty water the fungus will just immediately grow back.



Could you also take a picture of the wildtype from above, please?

Sorry I took so long I just finished testing. The ammonia for the wild type was 1.0 even though I changed it yesterday, the ph in his is 6.0 he has no nitrites or nitrates and his temperature is 60.4.

The albino had .25 ammonia in her old tank as well as 6.4 ph, no nitrite but I forgot to test the nitrate before I changed her water, and I can’t check the temperature at the moment.

My water conditioner is AmQuel as I mentioned before. And The salt didn’t come because of snow and ice.

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

Sorry I took so long I just finished testing. The ammonia for the wild type was 1.0 even though I changed it yesterday, the ph in his is 6.0 he has no nitrites or nitrates and his temperature is 60.4.

The albino had .25 ammonia in her old tank as well as 6.4 ph, no nitrite but I forgot to test the nitrate before I changed her water, and I can’t check the temperature at the moment.

My water conditioner is AmQuel as I mentioned before. And The salt didn’t come because of snow and ice.

Looking at those new photos, he doesn't appear to need salt baths at this point. I dont see any obvious signs of fungus. Keep doing daily or twice daily water changes on their tubs and you should see some improvement. In the mean time, work on getting your tank cycled. You can add nitrifying bacteria to speed up the process some. I personally use Microbe Lift Special Blend, but Dr. Tim's One and Only is a good one too. Their pH is also quite low; axolotls generally prefer to be closer to 7.5 -7.8.

 

[JM29]

Just some remarks :

- If Ammonia is the problem, raising the pH value will favour ammonia (NH3, more toxic) rather than ammonium (NH4+, less toxic). I don't know exactly what the test mesures.
- I see no living plants on the photo of the tank. Real aquatic plants, especially the fast-growing species, do uptake mainly ammonia/ammonium. Introducing a lot of aquatic plants would act positively on the health of the animals.

 

[Reptile.Riley]

Looking at those new photos, he doesn't appear to need salt baths at this point. I dont see any obvious signs of fungus. Keep doing daily or twice daily water changes on their tubs and you should see some improvement. In the mean time, work on getting your tank cycled. You can add nitrifying bacteria to speed up the process some. I personally use Microbe Lift Special Blend, but Dr. Tim's One and Only is a good one too. Their pH is also quite low; axolotls generally prefer to be closer to 7.5 -7.8.

I’ve added almost three bottles of bacteria into the tank sense we got it, and there’s still 2.0 ammonia in that tank.

how do you suggest raising the ph? I’m not really sure how to do it.

 

[Reptile.Riley]

Just some remarks :

- If Ammonia is the problem, raising the pH value will favour ammonia (NH3, more toxic) rather than ammonium (NH4+, less toxic). I don't know exactly what the test mesures.
- I see no living plants on the photo of the tank. Real aquatic plants, especially the fast-growing species, do uptake mainly ammonia/ammonium. Introducing a lot of aquatic plants would act positively on the health of the animals.

Thank you so much! I will definitely look into plants.

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

I’ve added almost three bottles of bacteria into the tank sense we got it, and there’s still 2.0 ammonia in that tank.

how do you suggest raising the ph? I’m not really sure how to do it.

I'm not familiar with that brand of bacteria, so I cant say anything about it. That should be helping, but it still takes time to get the tank established. How often have you been doing water changes on the tank? And how much do you change? Until the tank is successfully converting ammonia into nitrites and nitrates, the ammonia will just keep rising without frequent water changes. As JM29 suggested, plants can be a good addition, but they wont completely solve your problem either. The easiest plants to care for are Marimo moss balls. They are also pretty easy to find in most LFS. Anubias also do well in the cold water and lower light. out of curiosity, have you tested your water out of the tap?

 

[Reptile.Riley]

I'm not familiar with that brand of bacteria, so I cant say anything about it. That should be helping, but it still takes time to get the tank established. How often have you been doing water changes on the tank? And how much do you change? Until the tank is successfully converting ammonia into nitrites and nitrates, the ammonia will just keep rising without frequent water changes. As JM29 suggested, plants can be a good addition, but they wont completely solve your problem either. The easiest plants to care for are Marimo moss balls. They are also pretty easy to find in most LFS. Anubias also do well in the cold water and lower light. out of curiosity, have you tested your water out of the tap?

I haven’t been changing the water in the forty gallon because there’s nothing living in it, and I do have two moss balls in there already. And no I haven’t tested the tap water.

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

I haven’t been changing the water in the forty gallon because there’s nothing living in it, and I do have two moss balls in there already. And no I haven’t tested the tap water.

before you took them out, how often were you doing water changes on that tank. You say the ammonia is 2ppm in the 40g tank so I want to know how often you were doing water changes on it while they were in it.

 

[Reptile.Riley]

before you took them out, how often were you doing water changes on that tank. You say the ammonia is 2ppm in the 40g tank so I want to know how often you were doing water changes on it while they were in it.

They weren’t in the tank for more than two days. They were in a ten gallon (with no ammonia) for about a month and I did a water change 1-2 times a week