Illness/Sickness: Sad axie (receding gills not eating)

Hi everyone.
Im a new axie owner and ive been experiencing a problem with one of my axies. when i first obtained little pika he was energetic and would snap at anything that i would feed him. however over the past week or so he has been refusing to eat anything even when i try to entice him by dangling it in front of him. since its already been so long after he ate im starting to worry that hes going to starve himself to death. he is also a bit paler but that may be due to the fact i keep him in white sand (hes a black melanoid) Another problem which i believe to be the cause of the not eating is that his once beautiful gills have drastically receded almost as if he had curled it back. there are no real filaments on the stalks that i can see, and it seems that he is only relying on his lungs for oxygen as the frequently goes to the top for a gulp. I have tried fridging him for a day to see if he was constipated or maybe he had eaten too big a piece of a worm, but that was not the case as he had nothing unusual in his bowels. I did a water test after 3 days of him not eating and the only abnormality is that my PH had a drastic drop down to a 6. I believe this was due to the introduction on many plants in the tank but i could be wrong. i also had to do a large water change of about 50% so maybe its shock?(the water was dechlorinated BTW) Since then i have raised the PH to 7.3 by using baking soda. Any help on the matter will be greatly appreciated, thank you for taking the time.

Water parameters
PH 7.3
ammonia 0.0
nitrate 0.0
nitrite 0.0
temp 60-75 degrees F

Food
frozen bloodworms
chopped up earthworms
axolotl pellets (found on the forum)

Has your tank been cycled? Please see the links for information on this, and other water requirements.
Caudata Culture Articles - Cycling
Axolotls - Requirements & Water Conditions in Captivity
What are you using to test the water? Do you use strips or a liquid test kit?

Yes the tank was cycled for more than a month before i introduced the axolotl and i use the liquid test tube type of tests

Would you be able to post some recent photos of his gills?
I'm still relatively new to axolotl keeping, but there are lots of very experienced keepers who will be able to help. I'm sure that the experienced keepers will be able to offer you some advice to help Pika.

If the readings for Ammonia, Nitrite, and NitrAte are all 0 then this would suggest your tank is not cycled.. There should be a reading of NitrAte up to 40ppm.

If your tank is not cycled then water quality could be an issue as the gills have receded and fimbriae have gone.

The water temperature being between 60-75F is a problem, since that would be mean water temperature is fluctuating between 60-75 which is a lot. 75F is too high, bordering the limit of temperature where stress and disease can occur.

Could you test again making sure you follow the test instructions very carefully and using clean dry tubes, and check your temperature again.

Are you able to post some photos of the axolotl and his tank?

I concur with AxolotlChris, if your readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, are all sitting at ‘0’, the tank has not cycled. During the month of cycling, how often did you test the water? Did the levels change?

The presence of the plants may be impacting on the cycling process, as the plants will be competing with the beneficial bacteria for food sources (ammonia is food to both). If you wish to cycle the tank it's best to remove the plants until after the tank has finished cycling.

Maintaining good water quality is essential to keeping axolotls healthy. The articles Donna has linked are well worth a read through.

A pH of 6.0 is far too low. Although axolotls can tolerate a wide pH range of 6.5-8.00, their preference is toward the higher end of the scale.

You mentioned that you added the soda to the water to bring the pH up to 7.3, do you recall what the pH was before it dropped to 6.0, and before you added the baking soda? I would suggest testing the pH level of your tap water. Simply pour a glass of water (don’t drink it! ) and test it. What’s the reading?

Use of chemical (quick fix) pH uppers and downers can cause wild fluctuations in pH. These fluctuations are far more dangerous to the axolotl than leaving the water at an imperfect pH level.

The good news is that there are quite a few safe natural methods that can be used to slowly raise and then maintain your pH at a consistent acceptable level for the axolotls (consistency is key!). The options are: shell grit, coral sand, or limestone. As the change to the pH level will be slow and gradual, the axolotls will not be stressed by the process.

My tap water has a very low pH, I also have driftwood in both axolotl tanks (driftwood lowers pH) so I use shell grit in my aquariums. You can buy shell grit from most pet stores.

I have a sack of shell grit in one of the media baskets within each canister filter (the grit has been in there for four or so years now, and is still maintaining the pH of both tanks at a steady 7.6). If you use a filter that does not have a suitable compartment to place the sack in, you can just place the sack on the substrate.

I used the leg of a pantyhose stocking to make the sack.

[FONT=&quot]- Cut a good length off and put some shell grit into the "sack" (I would add about a *1/2 to 1 cup of shell grit at a time)
- knot off the end (not too tight, as you may need to add more shell grit later)
- give it a shake in a bucket of the tank water to clean the grit off (it's quite dusty! If not cleaned first, it will cloud up the tank!)
- and then add the stocking to the tank.

Let it sit in the tank for a few days. The change will be very gradual, so test the water every few days, and if there is no difference, add another 1/2 to 1 cupful to the stocking and repeat until the pH is where you want it.

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thanks alot its great how helpful everyone is here in the forum.
here are some before and after pictures of Pika

thanks,
i tested the water again and was very careful i dont know what i did before but the last test was completely wrong. (test tube were probably not clean or something) anyway the readings right now are
Ph 7.4
Nitrite 0 ppm
Ammonia 0. 25ppm
Nitrate 5 ppm
Currently im trying to keep the tank cooler by keeping my ac on and putting a sealed water bottle with ice on the top. looks like its working a bit because the water is now a stable 65 degrees F (18 C)

and as for the tank being cycled im sure it is since i went through the nitrate and nitrite spike and then decrease during the month i was cycling. also we i went though the cycle i added about 1 ppm of ammonia that disappeared overnight (which means the bacteria are working right?) Perhaps you are right and it did crash.. i tried to be very careful about this before i got the axie. Anyway ill take that into consideration just in case

I tested the water every 2 days or so and the levels did change. (below is attached a small table i did during the process so i could keep track) Perhaps theres not enough ammonia in the tank to feed both the bacteria and the plant? (i do frequent water changes to make sure the ammonia does not rise too much.)
And yea those articles are very informative
Yea i didnt test the Ph as much as the other things because i didnt think it would change so dramatically. goes to show you that everything in water quality is important. the PH of regular tap water is a nice 7.0
Thats a very interesting trick for the Ph! ill get to work on that right away (wouldn't want to go through this again) and when i added the baking soda i did it in a time frame of 4 days adding less than a teaspoon each day (though your methods sound MUCH better)

It doesn't seem like your cycle is completed, though it is on the last stages. Ideally you want a higher reading of nitrAte, and 0 nitrite. Test your water again, to check if the nitrite has lowered and the nitrAte has risen. Then test everyday for the same outcome.

When you cycled before, the 1ppm of ammonia being converted over night is good, but its better when first cycling a tank to gradually raise the ammonia in increments each time until about 3-4ppm of ammonia can be successfully converted to nitrAte at once, then you have strong colonies of bacteria that can handle a high load of ammonia.

I take it you have more than one Axolotl? If so, then they should be producing enough ammonia for your plants and bacteria.

Can you post images of your tank/setup?

Since its in the last stages should i take the axies to another container and keep increasing the ammonia like u said (unless its ok to leave them there)
And yes i have two though the other one does not seem to have any problems.

just noticed the table wasn't attached

it dosent continue but i stopped after the ammonia was able to be converted overnight 1 ppm for 3 days in a row. after that i did a water change to bring the nitrates down

Since one of your Axolotl is suffering I would remove both and use a different source of Ammonia.

Your biofilter (bacteria) is completing a full conversion from Ammonia to Nitrate, so keep dosing Ammonia and look for it to be fully converted to Nitrate then up the dose of Ammonia slightly and watch for the full conversion to Nitrate again (remember to do 20-30% water changes to keep the Nitrates below 40ppm.)

You need the colonies of bacteria to be large enough to handle higher doses of Ammonia, once your biofilter can convert this, leaving you with results of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10-40ppm nitrate, then your cycle is complete.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml
http://www.oscarfishlover.com/how-to-cycle-your-aquarium

is it possible it is morphing, or a salamander? You did say they where young. Pretty new at this myself. Wonder if it might be worth while putting something out of the water to give it the option of land?
I am sure one of the senior members can tell me if I am full of bs or not, lol

The images posted don't show any symptoms of morphing. No use in creating accessible land when there are no concrete symptoms.

Just isolate the Axolotls in separate containers with daily water changes, and monitor them for improvement while cycling your tank.

Thanks for all your help guys ill keep them separate until i can cycle the tank then. Hopefully he'll go back to his former self.

no hes not morphing. axolotls stay in this stage for their entire life unless human force them to morph by keeping them in terrible water conditions and forcing them out of the water. my tank setup is completely aquatic its just since the tank isn't cycled his gills went down.

just wanted everyone to know hes eating again and his gills look a tad bit longer now. thanks for everyones help

Congratulations.
Great news to hear that he is eating and that the gills are growing back.
:happy: