Illness/Sickness: White foo on side of Axolotl and a little bit of gill infection.

[Bran861]

Last night. They were fine and then this morning my axolotls showed lots of signs of illness. My white one would go up to the top of the tank. And show many signs of aggression. I recently started using flourish excel to help my live water wisteria and anubus nana. I took these plants out today do to the signs and when I took the plant out the white one came and tried to eat the whole leaf of the nana. This agressive behavior was very odd. And the gills on that one look infected. Now for my black one. He looked like he had white mucus coming off of him. And while swimming lopsided he was taking his back leg and scratching himself to get it off. And was swimming very irritatedly. also experiencing a little gill infection. I read that this may be from heat stress and some people put them in their refrigerator. I did this. And they are still in there while I treat my tank and the water they are in with stress coat. At the moment my ammonia reads .25 or lower. While my p.h. is 7.2 my NO-3 and NO-2 are both a bit high due to the cycling of a newer tank. And are starting to decrese. Is there anything else I can do to ensure the health of these creatures?

 

[auntiejude]

You have poisoned your axies by using plant fertiliser - you must not use any chemical treatment in an axie tank unless it is advised by a vet.

You need to do a complete water change ASAP.

The 'white stuff' is probably your axies' slime coat coming off - treat them with a tea bath.

 

[Skudo09]

When you say the nitrite and nitrate is high, how high is it? What are the readings? If they are high you need to do water changes to bring the levels down as this could be contributing to their skin issues. The plant fertiliser is likely the cause of their skin condition. What is the temperature of the tank?

For now I would put the axolotls in a tub of clean dechlorinator water and keep them cool. You must change the water in the tubs daily 100%. Some photos would be good also to get a better idea of what issues we are dealing with.

What are you feeding them?

 

[Skudo09]

And yes I agree with Auntyjude. Do a complete water change on the tank to remove the plant fertiliser.

A tea bath would certainly help it's skin as well.

 

[Bran861]

Unfortunately I did not know this would poison them. I do plan on chenging the water. i have well water so that will help. One was around 40 and the other was around 10. I feed them worms I did from the ground everyday.

 

[Bran861]

And I would post pictures but my phone wont let me. And im at work. I did a 4 of 20 gallon ghange already.

 

[Skudo09]

The best thing can do is remove them from the tank and place them in a tub of clean dechlorinated water asap and whilst you are doing a complete change of water in the main tank. You do not want to expose them to the toxin any further than they already have been. A tea bath as Auntiejude suggested would really help soothe their skin.

 

[kcoscia]

Would a fish slime coat replacement additive be helpful for them? I'm new to axies but I thought maybe it might help. (Examples are Stress Coat+, Seachem Prime)

Someone confirm or disapprove?

 

[Skudo09]

I know some people use stress coat or seachem as their regular dechlorinator and they may have some beneficial action for axolotls slime coats. However any fish medications must be avoided unless directed by a veterinarian as many fish treatments are toxic to axolotls.

Personally in this case I would opt for a tea bath though.