Fungus

[benlang]

Hi guys, another fungus query, this is an axolotl i recued from a friend who had died (no one knew for a week).

It has this fungus type stuff around its lips and bumb (photo attached)

Anyone got any ideas on what it is and what to do about it?

Ben.

[Eva]

Hi Ben,

Does this help?
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/salt.shtml

[ali000]

Hi Ben
sorry to hear about your friend, thats really sad. I hope your new axie can now look forward to a fresh start.

Follow the advice on the article Eva posted and hopefully he will recover soon.

[Jacquie]

Hi Benlang,

I'm so sorry you've come by your new friend in such sad circumstances.

My apologies - but I cant quite make the photo out.

Fungus should look like a white cottony substance.

Your axies mouth looks very dark - but with the photo I can't make out if it is just his natural shades. Leucistic axolotls (his lovely black eyes identify him as leucistic) often have dark markings on their pink skin which can be speckly or even patchy on any part of the body. I'm afraid I can't quite see his bum either.

If you could put him in a tub and take a another photo of him from the front and the side, it would help us ascertain if it is fungus.

Hopefully it's just my eyes and someone sharper may be able to make it out.

Cheers Jacq.

[Kirst]

Hello

Hopfully this will help as well:

Bitten axie

Good luck

[benlang]

I guess its not fungus then, its a dark green colour on its bum and around its mouth

[benlang]

I have been doing the salt baths but it hasnt done much. I am trying to find a decent container to put it on to take a photo but my containers arent clear.

I talked to the shop owner of a pet shop and he said it might be "black spot".

It did have a white lump on its back which has now turned black.

What am I to do?

[kapo]

Hi Ben

How long have you had this axolotl?
Whereabouts do you currently have it and what is the temperature?

Saltbaths for most fungal infections do work but do take time and patience. It doesn't sound like nor look like fungus.

Apart from the change in appearance/colour to the lips/lump have you noticed whether the axolotl is stressed or has stopped eating etc... ?

[benlang]

Ive had it for i guess about 3 or 4 weeks now, i have it at home in a large 4 foot tank. The temp is 18c.

It now has the same "blackness" along the top line of its tail, and around to its bum, its toes are sort of the same. the freeny blackness comes from the top of its tail to the back of its head along the fin.

[Eva]

Hi Ben,

Green is a new color for me. The way you describe the pattern of coloring, it sounds like natural markings. If the axolotl is young, its markings will develop over time, so that might be what is happening.

It really is difficult without a photo. Perhaps if you could take a picture of the axololt in the aquarium using a flash? I know that they don't like light, expecially sudden light, but if you are worried about sickness, this would be a lesser evil.

-Eva

[benlang]

Side view, you can sort of see the greeny blackness across the top of the fin.





From the front, you can see the discolouration of the mouth and the lump on its back. This lump was first white, then black, and is now brown.




Side view, you can see the discolouration of the bum and the brown lump. There is another one of these lumps but a fraction of the size on the axolotls left side of the fin.

[Eva]

Hi Ben,

I've been combing through the forum but I've haven't found mich useful information. Thank you for the pictures - in my opinion, the discoloration does not look natural at all, and I have never seen anything like the discoloration around the mouth. Perhaps someone else on this forum can help, but if this were my pet, I would immediately find a veterenarian with experience with amphibians.

-Eva

[benlang]

Yeh, not exactly easy to do in the **** end of nowhere!!!! It cant be the first time its happened to an axie, somone must have some idea!

[Becky]

Some of the spots look like markings to me, unusual to say the least. Ben are the markings around the mouth scabby looking at all or do they look like they are part of the skin?

[benlang]

The markings around the mouth seem to be on top of the skin, im not entirely sure though.

[oceanblue]

You seem to have been dropped into axolotl keeping in an unusual way, sorry for your troubles. Some of the axolotl's markings are probably an unusual but normal pigment pattern similar to the irregular pigment spots on the one in this thread Pied/halequin axies?

The spot that was white then black then brown looks different, this could be fungus treated by the salt baths; fungus is white, the ulcer when the fungus drops off looks black and the healing area often contains brown blood derived pigment (Haemosiderin - an iron pigment - think of a bruise in humans). If this is the case it should fade with time.

Try and get the water conditions right (I don't know how clued up you are on water changes, ammonia levels and tank cycling! - there is advice in the forum or the related axolotl site) and keep on with the treatment for a bit longer. Don't expect the dark markings around the mouth and along the back, or the odd small flecks of pigment or the pigmented feet to change with treatment and don't continue treatment indefinitely to try to cure a non problem.

You are trying your best in difficult circumstances, good luck!

[Kaysie]

Can you rub the substance off?

[benlang]

Heya everyone, after 3 weeks of monitoring the "substance" has dissapeared on its own. I had just bought some tools to easily get the axie in and out of the tank (tank is 3 feet deep) when i noticed it starting to subside. I did not know whether to do salt baths still or not so I decided not to. Tank stats are perfect 0 0 20.

Still, Id love to know what it was.

[Kerry1968]

Good to know everything's OK, may it continue that way! Kerry.

[oceanblue]

Thanks for the follow up. Like everyone else I remain puzzled what the pigment was but its nice to know the axolotl is OK.