Thrashing Behaviour

New Owner, Sick Axolotl

Hello there, Recently I set up a 29 gallon tank and it has two axolotls in it a Melanoid and a wild type. However, recently my wild type has been behaving very weird with scratching his gills on his left side, it also seems as though he's scratched off most of the fluffy gill things on his one middle gill stalk off even though he only started doing this last night. A few times now he has also randomly started thrashing about trying to wiggle himself in somewhere or something, Ive seen them wiggle in tight spots before but never with force or thrashing. I have noticed that there is a large white fuzzy patch of stuff on the gill stalk where the feathers should be and was wondering if that might be a fungal infection? Also the poops have changed from being a dark brow and sold consistency to a more caramel and squishy consistency. I have 2 mystery snails in the tank as well but the Axo's seem to annoy them a little more than the snails possibly hurting the Axo. I have a lot of live plants in my aquarium and they have an increased amount of "Hairy" Algae, I am cutting back on my light source to try and control this. In the water its self and on the glass there are really small worm like organisms swimming around, are those normal? I have fed them a variety of foods including frozen and live brine shrimp(Live being only one time), frozen blood worms, live earth worms, live black worms(only once, over two weeks ago), and axolotl pellets. The parameters of my tank is: Ammonia .25ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 5.0ppm, PH 7.8
Im not sure if my tank has completely fully cycled again, I recently rearranged my tank and pulled up some plants and sand causing the levels to be thrown off slightly.
I haven't tried doing a salt bath or fridging and I am unsure as to if this is safe or even a liable solution.
Im also on the hunt for Indian almond leaves to help lower the PH levels so if anyones knows where I can get some in the Greater Toronto Area that would be great!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and respond, I hope to hear from one of you soon

You potentially have parasites affecting your Axolotl, due to the damage to the gills it is allowing fungus to grow. Can you take some images of your tank, the small worms, and your Axolotl?

Your tank does not seem fully cycled, but close to it. Soon enough your anmonia should read 0 along side nitrite, leaving you wil only readings of nitrAte. You then must perform water changes each time yor nitrAte reaches 40ppm or higher.

What temperature is your tank?

Ok so attached are pictures of the tank, 2 different worms I've found so far.
And a picture of my melanoid Toothless, now this isn't the one with the fungal infection.... he's in a tea bath at the moment (directions from my breeder, she's highly against salt baths unless completely nessisary)
But Toothless has these bumps on his skin I've found recently .... I've been trying to research online what it could be but I can't find anything . If you have any suggestions or can point me in the right direction .... that would be most helpful!

I was just cleaning my tank and came across the freakiest thing yet .... it was about the size of a medium shrimp and looked kind of like one . I have No idea what or how it got there.... it's some bug. Any ideas?

The worms look like planaria, these are harmless but are present when there is excess waste in the tank for them to feed on and thrive.

The bumps could be Air bubble disease, but could equally be caused by poor water quality.

I'm not sure of the extra bug you found, someone else will have to establish that one. But it has probably found its way in from either plants or when feeding live food. Where do you source your food and plants?

What's your tanks tenperature?

You shouldn't need salt baths for minor fungal infections, just good water quality and the right temperature.

I expect all the symptoms your having are due to your tank still cycling.

Your bug looks like a damselfly nymph, might have come in on plant roots as an egg (usually on pond plants though).

Yea after one day in the tea bath the fungus was gone, I dunno when Is the right time to put it back in the tank ... probably once it's finished cycling again .

And I did identify it as a damselfly nymph. Super creepy it's been in there this whole time .... Considering I do partial water changes almost everyday to remove excess waste, it's incomprehensible to me that I never saw it until just that time . It's been sneaky . Worries me there could be more, even though they are completely harmless and even a decent food source. ... still super freaky.

But I really appreciate the replies and help! Thanks so much

Great to hear that the fungus has gone. :happy:

Donna001 said:

Great to hear that the fungus has gone. :happy:

Click to expand...

Thank you very much

The bumps on the skin could be an irritation. A common cause is aloe vera in water conditioner. Look for anything advertising the promotion of slime coat or healthy skin on the bottle, if they don't list aloe vera specifically.