actheaxolotl
New member
Hello everyone, I am a new member but have been reading advice on this site for years now. My axolotl, Air Conditioner (AC for short) is a little over 5 years old now. She's never had any major issues besides maybe a case of bloating/constipation and one memorable small injury on her tail, but I am worried about her now. On Sunday morning, I went to feed her a nightcrawler when I noticed a white fluffy bit on the tip of one of her gills. I had dropped the worm right before I saw it, and when she lunged to eat it (and missed), the white bit came off. It did not quite look like fungus. It honestly looked like the tip of her gill had lost oxygen and broken off... I remember seeing a very faint pink line in the white. I wish I had taken pictures and immediately checked the water parameters, but I might have freaked out a bit and tubbed her and did a large water change. I have been keeping her in her hospital tub since (performing complete water changes every 24 hours or after she goes to the bathroom), and I have not seen any other white growths. She actually refused to eat the worm on Sunday, she spit it right back out, but the next day she did eat some pellets (and has been eating pellets and going to the bathroom normally) so I'm not concerned about that. Her gills look okay, except for the one gill that has a red growth on it. I'm not sure what that is, but she's had it for a long time and it doesn't seem to hurt her. I figured maybe it was just a benign growth/abnormality in her gill, but please advise if it looks worrisome. Also, she is under direct light in these photos, so she may look a bit pale in some areas, but rest assured the light was only for brief photos to track her progress in the tub. How does she look? Any advice? My working theory is that there was an ammonia spike (water parameters are normal now but I have changed the biomax filter since tubbing her- I have an awful memory and I think I let the filter inserts stay in her HOB filter for too long, but I have taken steps to create reminders on my phone to avoid this in the future!) and a part of her gill suffered because of it. I feel awful about it and I am doing my best to help her- I did some research and am experimenting with Indian Almond Leaves now. Please let me know what you think and if there's anything else I can do.
P.S. I am so sorry if I mess up with uploading this with the images. I am trying my best to make sure everything is easy to understand and follows the forum guidelines, so please let me know if I have messed anything up!
First pic (one with worm) is AC on Sunday immediately after tubbing. Her feet look more red than usual and the tip of the top gill on the right side looks bare.
I'm not sure if this video will work or not, but this was taken a couple of hours after tubbing. She honestly looks much better to me in this video! Her bare gill looks more pink and her feet look back to normal (actually, is it normal to be able to see her bones so clearly? If the video works, you'll see what looks like her winking!)
Okay, last image. This was taken right after our daily tub water change today. If you zoom in on her gill, it looks like there's some new little fluffy bits growing. You can also see her odd gill (the one right next to the gill I was originally talking about) that is bent forwards with a red growth coming out of it. Again, would love to know if that is concerning!
Please let me know if I did the right thing by tubbing her. I haven't used any treatments beyond Seachem Prime to treat her (filtered) water and I tried a tiny bit of Indian Almond leaf today. Does she look okay? Does anyone else think maybe she had her gill injured by ammonia and it will be safe to reintroduce her to her tank soon? Thank you so so much in advance, and I apologize for the long post!
-AC's Mom
P.S. I am so sorry if I mess up with uploading this with the images. I am trying my best to make sure everything is easy to understand and follows the forum guidelines, so please let me know if I have messed anything up!
First pic (one with worm) is AC on Sunday immediately after tubbing. Her feet look more red than usual and the tip of the top gill on the right side looks bare.
I'm not sure if this video will work or not, but this was taken a couple of hours after tubbing. She honestly looks much better to me in this video! Her bare gill looks more pink and her feet look back to normal (actually, is it normal to be able to see her bones so clearly? If the video works, you'll see what looks like her winking!)
Okay, last image. This was taken right after our daily tub water change today. If you zoom in on her gill, it looks like there's some new little fluffy bits growing. You can also see her odd gill (the one right next to the gill I was originally talking about) that is bent forwards with a red growth coming out of it. Again, would love to know if that is concerning!
Please let me know if I did the right thing by tubbing her. I haven't used any treatments beyond Seachem Prime to treat her (filtered) water and I tried a tiny bit of Indian Almond leaf today. Does she look okay? Does anyone else think maybe she had her gill injured by ammonia and it will be safe to reintroduce her to her tank soon? Thank you so so much in advance, and I apologize for the long post!
-AC's Mom
