Is something wrong with her? Please help!!!

[navy]

Hi, I'm new here and I've found this forum to be very helpful...I'm curious and sort of worried that something might be wrong with my Gillie

She has white sort of skin in between her Gills, is this normal? She had them almost from day 1, and she's in a temporary tank at the moment. Which is going through the cycle so I don't think she likes it. If anybody knows if this is some sort of illness I would greatly appreciate some advice! I would call the Pet store but they are all contradictory and don't seem to know what they are talking about! Here is a photo, it looks worse in the photo...she's still got a big appetite so I hope its just coloration.

Also its really hot in Australia at the moment, and I'm cooling the tank with bottles of ice, but the temperature seems to be staying at about 25 degrees Celsius, isn't this too hot? what else can u do to cool it down? Our house is quite cool, but we don't have air conditioning

Thanks!

 

[brendan]

to cool the water down u could fill a plastic 600ml coke bottle with water. Freeze it then float it in the tank... But you gotta make sure the temperature doesnt drop to much to suddenly otherwise that will stress out the axie and over time if it persists will kill the axie.

As for the skin discolouration i have no idea. Good lukc in finding out. Hope she ok.

 

[jarred]

I'm not sure what it could be. At first I thought it was a fungus but after seeing the picture I am not so sure.

I am up in Queensland so it can get pretty hot. The best way I have found this summer to keep my axies cool is to have a fan blowing across the surface of the water combined with bottles of ice. I have found I need to replace the bottles every 1 and a half hours. This method has reduced a temperature of 29C in my tank to about 22C which is the best I can do.

Hope that helped you.

 

[leah]

"and she's in a temporary tank at the moment. Which is going through the cycle so I don't think she likes it."

Liking it has nothing to do with it. Putting any animal into an uncycled tank causes enormous stress and even physical pain- you may as well be peeing in your tank with all the ammonia produced by the cycle. She definitely doesn't like it! Ammonia burns the gills and skin. So do nitrites. Doing water changes will help by removing the ammonia and nitrites, but it will make the cycle take longer. For her health, I'd start doing 50% daily changes. Make sure you match the temperature and pH of the new water to the tank water, and use dechlorinator. If you can get some test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, you'll be able to monitor your water parametres more carefully and will be able to tell when the tank is finished cycling.

Axolotls need cold water (less than 20 degrees) if they're going to be happy and healthy. Keep the room she's in dark-no lights and curtains closed. A fan blowing directly over the water, like Jarred has said, will do a lot to help cool things down. Ice works as well, you just have to be careful that the temperature doesn't fluctuate too wildly (going up and down several degrees each day.) Stable temperatures are better than horribly unstable temperatures, so just keep an eye on things. You might also want to check your local paper for used portable air-conditioners (and if your axolotl is in your room like mine are, you'll have a nice cool room too!)

If the white on her gills doesn't look like fungal growth, it may just be her colour. From the picture, it's hard to tell. Keep a close watch for any signs of spreading or behaviour changes. Keep the water conditions in check and do your best to keep her cool, you may find she's just been stressed by the heat.

Good luck!}

 

[kim]

The fan blowing across the tank is great I had to do it last year! It got that hot !

I have the same colouration on one of my axies as you do, I dont think its anything other than colouration

so nothing to be worried about, and my axies has had it from day one too!

 

[brendan]

yes the fan across the water.. Had to do that the other week as we had a few hot days.

 

[navy]

Hi there, thanks for everyone's advice! I am doing the ice in the water thing (as u have to do that with Sea horses), I tried the fan too last night, doesn't the fan cause lots of water flow though? I keep the curtains closed during the day and lights off as well.

As for the water, I went to the pet store to get it tested (the water is actually old water from my friend's tank) but she said I needed his gravel for the bacteria...I said what can I do? She said nothing, wait it out, see if it survives...I was kinda annoyed the way she talked as though my axolotl wouldn't be much of a loss ("well if it survives..") like it would mean nothing if it died! Anyway what else can I do? There is nowhere else I can put her, I thought getting my friend's old water would be fine after I cooled it down and adjusted the Ph levels etc...

As for changing the water, the pet store people (who i'm finding less and less helpful) told me not to do any water changes for at least 50 days! I was like "oh ok..." but I did it anyway, and it might have made things worse as the water is just a tad cloudy. I always treat my water with Ager, Neutraliser etc so its not as if its just plain tap water.

*sigh* Perhaps I should bring her back to the pet store for a while, but I can't bring myself to do it, I've become "attached".

 

[eric]

A fan would just make the top of the water move. It wouldn't stress your Axolotl.

 

[jamie]

increasing the water flow a little can help cool the tank. I also found that adding an air stone helped cool the tank too.

 

[mik]

It's nothing fantastic or unusual.
Simple Science Lesson:
Evaporation takes place the surface of the tank. The molecules scavenge energy from other nearby molecules to make the leap from liquid to vapour. Every school kid knows that evaporation causes cooling and this is why.

The airstone will help agitate the surface but moving air across the top will assist the evaporative process more because it breaks up the boundary layers. A more humid boundary layer doesn't get a chance to form. Dryer air (less humid) moving across the surface has greater capacity to absorb the water vapour.

If anyone wants boring with the enthalpy values take a look in a data book like Rogers and Mayhew. But trust me (& all these others) the evaporation by fan technique will have a huge cooling effect, won't harm your axies, produces a more stable temperature gradiant in the tank and apart from topping up water levels occasionally requires s of little effort.

 

[elisheba]

"As for the water, I went to the pet store to get it tested (the water is actually old water from my friend's tank) but she said I needed his gravel for the bacteria...I said what can I do? She said nothing, wait it out, see if it survives..."

So did she test the water or not? it sounds like she tested the water and it had a chemical spike (i suspect it would be ammonia at this point) and told you that you needed gravel because of that, but i wasn't sure. either way she is incompetent.

1) go to the store (a different one if you can!) and purchase water testing kits, at least for ammonia and nitrite. Test your water yourself.

"...Anyway what else can I do?...As for changing the water, the pet store people (who i'm finding less and less helpful) told me not to do any water changes for at least 50 days!"

Ok back to the part where this woman is incompetent... I don't really have any idea why she told you not to do a water change for 50 days. no tank should be without a partial water change for that long, especially not a new tank!

what size is your tank? since you're already in the position of having an essentially uncycled tank and we can't reverse time, do tons of water changes. the idea is to dilute the toxic chemicals that your axo is excreting (e.g. ammonia, nitrite). For a 10 gallon tank with 1 adult axo i would do at least 1 gal/day until your testing starts to show clear for BOTH AMMONIA AND NITRITE.

good luck.