Illness/Sickness: Rapidly growing strange things all over axolotls!!

The-Axolotl said:
Went to the Pet shop and couldn't find dimilin but we got another fish anchor worm remover thing its like. Tablet and you desolve it in their tAnk its called 'blue planet PARACIDE' and each tablet contains 20mg of trichlorfon is this ok for the axies? Also bought salt because we were running out in case they need to be salt bathed
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Good Morning from the Pacific Northwest.

I have recently posted a thread regarding a consult I had with my local Exotics Pet Vet.

It's listed Here: Illness/Sickness: - Anchor Worm Infestation; Sharing my experience to help others!

Dimilin is the only approved "safe drug method," but needs to be diluted because its used to treat Farm sized Ponds.

Anchor worms are very resistant to many conditions, and they are not affected very much by salt baths.

My local Exotics Vet ordered me some and put it into a 9:1 dilution for me so I could dose 1ml / 10 gallons. after the dilution it only cost about $32.00 USD.

He said add one 1ml dose stir the water well and then add the Axies and wait 5 days, monitor the ammonia in the hospital/quarantine tank. and repeat a 1 ml dose 5 days later.

Dimilin will make sure all the free swimming juveniles are dead but in most cases wont kill the parasitic adults.

You will need to take your axie in after the treatment to remove the adults.

Try and keep your water at about 50 Deg F because this will drastically slow or stop the reproduction process of the adult Anchor Worms.

While in quarantine, I recommend that you sanitize your main enclosure (tank) using the process in my thread linked above. The dimilin only treats but doesn't guarantee that you will get every egg. the adult females will lay around 300 - 400 eggs every two weeks. and i also have a method for an empty fishless cycle which works wonders, mines been cycling for 13 days and is already producing nitrates.

However, I cannot stress enough that you NEED to sanitize your main enclosure because these eggs can lie dormant for a while In your filter, substrate, on the surface of your tank, etc.

It has been a stressful time for me so I understand what your going through, but Skittles is now eating 1/2 of a nightcrawler every day (my vet recommended that I upped her nutrition intake through treatment) and she seems to be rather happy.

Feel free to message me with any questions i'm here to help whenever I have time :)
 
Hello, I have read your post about how to sanitize the tank and everything to get rid of the anchor worms, I don't have a second tank so will a 8 litre (1.7 gallon) tub be ok if we do 100% water changes while the tank is cycling? Also my axies have a booked vet apointment for next thursday. K have been recommended to feed them bloodworms as it is more nutritious. I did try putting the anchor worn removing tablets that you dissolve in the tank but it seemed to make them worse. I would say the vet will get us dimilin but I'm not sure.
 
The-Axolotl said:
Hello, I have read your post about how to sanitize the tank and everything to get rid of the anchor worms, I don't have a second tank so will a 8 litre (1.7 gallon) tub be ok if we do 100% water changes while the tank is cycling? Also my axies have a booked vet apointment for next thursday. K have been recommended to feed them bloodworms as it is more nutritious. I did try putting the anchor worn removing tablets that you dissolve in the tank but it seemed to make them worse. I would say the vet will get us dimilin but I'm not sureyeah, the axolotls are very sensative to certain drugs and without knowing what
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Ahh, yes as long as you have one for each axie, you should be good. For reference when I tub and/or Quarantine my axolotls I use the sterilite shoe container from Walmart: Robot or human?

I do have a 10 gal quarantine tank in case a drug treatment prescribed by a vet is given that requires a larger body of water, which was used for my current treatment of the Anchor worms with Dimilin from my Vet.

Indeed Do feed them the Blood worms, you can also feed them Red Worms (Trout worms where I'm from) or Night Crawlers.

As for the Treatment im unsure. In my experience, Most, not all but most treatments for fish use ingredients that are highly toxic to Axolotls. The only medications I've used are: Methylene Blue, and Jungle Fungus Clear.

I found a couple websites that have lists regarding safe and unsafe treatments. Id look at your box and Check the ingredients against the lists here:

and here:

Safe and Unsafe Aquarium Treatments | sillyaxolotls

A list of safe and unsafe chamical aquarium treatment products for axolotls
sillyaxolotls.wixsite.com sillyaxolotls.wixsite.com
and here:

Axolotls - Health & Diseases

www.axolotl.org www.axolotl.org

Those are the best sources I've found that are reliable.

for fungal infections, i have found that:

In the sterilite Container I fill with water about 1.5" from the rim. ad a couple drops of water conditioner 3-4 drops M. Blue, and if its a really bad or aggressive fungal infection, 1/8th tablet of Jungle Fungus Clear. with this the fungus should fall off after about 3-5 days if not it should change color and you can take an eye dropper and suck it off. continue treatment for 5-7 days and your fungal problem should be gone.
 
Hello, We are taking them to the vet on Thursday so in 3 days, they haven't recommended to kill the anchor worms with dimilin yet, but they might. At our local pet shop they don't sell night crawlers or earthworms or any other worms just frozen bloodworm blocks they you defrost and then all the little bloodworms come out then you feed it to your axie. But I did read your anchor worm thread and I'm still not 100% sure how to kill all the anchor worms in the tank. The ingredients in the tablets were safe for axies. I have the tubs that we fridged the axies in when they were sick another time they are both around 1 to 2 gallons and if needed they fit perfectly in the fridge.
 
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also were can i buy jungle fungus clear or m. blue because my axies have a re-occuring fungal problem.
 
The-Axolotl said:
Hello, We are taking them to the vet on Thursday so in 3 days, they haven't recommended to kill the anchor worms with dimilin yet, but they might. At our local pet shop they don't sell night crawlers or earthworms or any other worms just frozen bloodworm blocks they you defrost and then all the little bloodworms come out then you feed it to your axie. But I did read your anchor worm thread and I'm still not 100% sure how to kill all the anchor worms in the tank. The ingredients in the tablets were safe for axies. I have the tubs that we fridged the axies in when they were sick another time they are both around 1 to 2 gallons and if needed they fit perfectly in the fridge.
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Ahh, so you will need to drain your main tank and pull any and all decorations out. And soak the decorations in a 10 % bleach solution that would be 1 part of bleach or every 9 parts of water.

Then spray down the inside of your tank with the same bleach solution and let your tank and decorations soak for 30 minutes to an hour.

While you are letting your decorations and tanks it with the Bleach solution get some plain tap water boiling on the stove in a pot big enough to fit any filter media you might have. I don't know if you have a hang on back filter, sponge filter, or if you have a canister filter.

If you have a hang on back filter you might just replace the cartridge and clean the inside of the filter housing with a bleach solution alongside all your decorations.

If you have a canister filter or sponge filter, and don't want to throw away your filter sponge or all of your filter media like ceramic rings and bio balls and what not all you have to do is boil them for 10 minutes on the stove and then let them cool to room temperature this will ensure that everything is sanitized with in the filter.

Once thats done wipe the solution out of your tank with paper towels and get as much as you can out.

Rinse your decorations under cold tap water well for about 5 - 10 minutes.

Make a 9:1 solution of white distilled vinegar and water. Any vinegar will do. And soak your decorations for 15 minutes and spray the inside of the tank again and let sit for 15 minutes. But please be carefull to make sure you rinsed the decorations well with water beforehand and didn't leave a pool of bleach in the bottom of your tank, as the vinegar will react with the bleach producing chlorine gas so make sure your work area is well ventilated.

Using the vinegar to rinse everything will neutralize the bleach and keep any Trace Amounts of bleach out of the water. Where as any remaining vinegar will just alter the pH of your water slightly which is easier to correct and will allow faster cycling of your main tank.
 
I bought the Methylene Blue off amazon, its not easily found locally for me. I looked everywhere with no luck, so Amazon for this one might be your best bet.

Metheleyne Blue Here:
Amazon, Methylene Blue

Jungle Fungus Clear Here:
Amazon, Jungle Fungus Clear

You can also find the Jungle Fungus Clear at walmart in their fish section, I haven't seen it in any of my other pet stores in my area.

Walmart, Jungle Fungus Clear
 
Ok thank you very much for the help! As soon as we come back from the vet tomorrow we will start cleaning/sanitizing all the tank stuff.
 
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