Cloudy eyes + white gill tips?

Karayna

Karayna

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Five days ago I bought an adult female axolotl. She has cloudy eyes, but I didn't react when I first brought her home as I thought that she was just older. Her gills are quite short (but fluffy), and yesterday I noticed light/white coloration on her gill tips. Could this be regeneration, or fungus? It doesn't look fluffy/"fungus-y" to me.

Tank stats:
Temp: 17°C/62.6 F
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrates: 10

She has a huge appetite, seems very healthy and behaves like a normal axolotl. Her tank mate is thriving. Here is a photo of the two (she's the one in the top pic):
 

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Looks like regrowth, but keep an eye on it. If it starts to look like a cotton ball, it is fungus.
 
Nina Willis said:
Looks like regrowth, but keep an eye on it. If it starts to look like a cotton ball, it is fungus.
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Thank you, will do! She's eating several worms per day, so I suspect most of that energy is going to her gills...!
 
I have a very very sick axis, but he has a cloudy eye like yours... I'm wondering if he has gone blind ... he also looks like he has a cleft lip (which he never had before)
 

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Cloudy eyes are a common symptom for ammonia toxicity. My first priority would be correcting the water conditions, if needed.
 
Elise said:
Cloudy eyes are a common symptom for ammonia toxicity. My first priority would be correcting the water conditions, if needed.
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In my case, current params are 0/0/20. Tank fully cycled for over a month. She had the cloudy eyes when I got her - I've now had her for over three weeks, and her eyes haven't cleared up. :/
 
Karayna said:
In my case, current params are 0/0/20. Tank fully cycled for over a month. She had the cloudy eyes when I got her - I've now had her for over three weeks, and her eyes haven't cleared up. :/
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Scaring can take some time to heal. I've never had an axolotl with similar eye symptoms so I'm unaware how long you should expect for recovery. The other common possibility for an opaque appearance in the eyes is cataracts, however this usually happens in axolotls much older than yours.

The white gill tips look a lot like gill atrophy to me, which is very common and normal. Do you have any updated pictures? Is she still showing the white tips a week later?
 
Elise said:
Do you have any updated pictures? Is she still showing the white tips a week later?
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The gills are healing! I wonder if the eye problems could be bacterial? She's eating and acting normal, so I don't want to fridge her if it's not necessary, but I thought about giving her daily methylene blue baths if it is an infection.

Here is an updated pic from today, maybe a tiny bit clearer eyes, but they still look sunken and weird compared to my other two axies eyes.
 

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I don't see any infection and I wouldn't do any bacterial treatment, personally.
His eyes look improved from your first picture.
 
Thank you! Will continue to monitor this. Would she benefit at all from oak extract? I have a bottle that I use for my dwarf cichlids.
 
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