Illness/Sickness: Help! want to save the girl

[Celeste]

Hi everyone!! im sorry if i havent been able to introduce myself in the right way. I apologize for my english, it is not my language plus i am very nervous and sad right now. I had 2 axolotls, a wildtype male and an albino female.

Got them about 1 month ago, not in aquarium, but in a university in mexico city that sells them in order to support the colony. When i got them i had months reading about them, but never heard about cycling tanks, so i did purchased a 90 x 45 x 30 one and it has 10 days cycling.

My male (Falcon) never ate as well as my female (Esile), but doctor said it was fine because males and specially wildtypes have more of a hard time adapting to new places.

Last saturday i saw them a little bit letargic (dont know if thats the word, i mean not alert) so i tested the water and was way high in nitrite (3.3 mg/l) so i took them away with new clean water. i use distillled water and add aquiarium salt (i was told that way), just a little , the few grains that i can hold in my had for every 20 liters of water. Do not use tap water because in my city it is dirty as hell.

The male started eating again and I was worried because he floated, just like he had a bubble in his thoracic spine. The doctor came in yesterday and with a glove checked them out and found them o.k., no inflamatory process, but not eating well, not floating. At night he was floating again so i pushed him down to the bottom of the tank and put his head a little above from the rest of th body and he burped a large bubble and then was fine again. He ate one worm and i saw him happy.

This morning found him dead in the bottom of the tank,, called the doctor (she has a masters in laboratoty animals and was in charge of an axolotl colony a couple of years ago) and she was out of town, and i took my axie to the refrigerator to wait for the doc and see if she can tell what caused his death. The only thing i noticed was that he moved less his gills and then, when he was already dead, his gills and testicles (dot know the word, just behind his back legs) looked red.
I am very very das, cryed all day, but i realize i have to do something about my little girl.

I put her in a plastic container with new water in a very low level so she can be able to stay in the surface without spending energy. hasnt ate for a week, an her gills look very very red, unusual red. The little arterys in her body, the superficial ones look a little red too. Her eyes are cloudy and I dont know what to do. Found this place, I pray someone can help me!!

Thanks to everyone

[Kaysie]

Do you keep them on pebbles or gravel?

[Celeste]

Used to keep them with large large pebbles, river stones, but when they got different, put them in bare tank with hidding places. my sister told me it might be a heart disease with my male, and stress with the girl. what do you have in mind? by the way, thanks for replying

[Kaysie]

The swollen cloaca of the male makes me think it could be impaction.

What temperature is your tank?

[Celeste]

20º... just read that gills, when they turn red, could be infection

[Celeste]

I checked carefully when I put the stones thah everyone of them were to big to fit their mouth....
What should I do with my baby girl?

[Kaysie]

Keep her as cool as possible, in fresh water. If you can put her in the fridge, I would do so. Keep offering food. And get her to a vet if you can. If it's a systematic infection, it will need treatment.

[Celeste]

Thanks Kaysie, do you think she has a sistemic infection?

[Kaysie]

The redness throughout the body makes me think so.

[Celeste]

Ok, so we put her in the fridge, the vet thought that might be a virus. She was really bad, we thought she was dead, and put her in the fridge with Holtrefeter´s solution and she is responding well, today moved and walked a little bit and recognized us. The redness in her body has been less (much less), and her gills are still red, dont know what kind of disease it could be... We would thank you a lot if someone could help us with an idea of the diagnosis and treatment. She hasnt eat but we dont want to disturb her a lot, so put her back to the fridge. Do we have to take her out from time to time so she can get warmer and move? for how long?
She is 8º C, dont want to stress her with big changes in temperature, but in this case we dont know what could be a big change. She started moving at 10º and put her back on the fridge when it got to 12º. Are we treating her well? is there any change we could make so she could get better in a faster way?

Thanks a lot for your help, we hope you keep with us!

[Celeste]

Hello everyone... posting with sad news, both my axies are dead.... we are very sad, but we really dont know what was wrong. We want to know so we are asking you for help, if someone has had this experience and if you were able to know what happened.. thank you all

[optimist]

What sad news. Very sorry to hear it.

[Kira]

I am so very sorry to hear that. You did try all you could to help them!

[Celeste]

thank you all for your support.... I am still trying to know what happened. Is there like an index of diseases? Some friend told me not to forget them and try to have another couple, he has some ready to breed... but I feel really insecure, just want to know what was wrong so this wont happen again...

[Jay]

G'day Celeste,

Very sorry to hear about your loss.

Here are some articles that might be able to give you some pointers:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/illness.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/illness2.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/illness3.shtml

Jay.

[Celeste]

Thanks... I will discuss this information with my vet, I hope we can get to the cause... anyway thanks a lot for your help and support

[Dave1812]

Sorry for your loss.

[Sherri]

Am so very sorry to hear about your loss, Celeste.
I don't know what may have caused them to die, but I think you should disinfect your aquarium well, and then cycle it. Wait until its fully cycled (my tank took 6 weeks to cycle fully), and then hopefully you will have better luck if you decide to take a new axie or two. Good luck!