Today I discovered that one of my wildtype axolotls (Axa's) gill feathers have turned from red to black! Her skin has also darkened to a dark grey from greenish. However, she doesn't have a curled tail, gills are not facing forward and Kip (her tankmate) seems fine.
I usually test the water every week before doing a water change, and it's been stable and cycled for months: 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite and 15-25 ppm nitrates.
Imagine my shock when I found out that there was now 0.5 ppm ammonia, 0.75 ppm nitrite (which is what worries me the most) and 25 ppm nitrate!!
I immediately changed 50% of the water and will continue to do daily partial water changes. What I don't understand is how it crashed - the filter has been running all the time. The only difference is that I added 5 Catappa leaves to the tank to try and treat cloudy eyes on one of the axies (the one that is still a normal color)... perhaps the decomposition of those was too much to take? They're still not decomposed. The tank is 102 litres (~27 g) and the filter is rated for a 200 litre tank (53 g).
Why did Axa's gill feathers and body turn black/dark? Has anyone heard of this before? Should I fridge? Temp is at 17°C like always.
I usually test the water every week before doing a water change, and it's been stable and cycled for months: 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite and 15-25 ppm nitrates.
Imagine my shock when I found out that there was now 0.5 ppm ammonia, 0.75 ppm nitrite (which is what worries me the most) and 25 ppm nitrate!!
I immediately changed 50% of the water and will continue to do daily partial water changes. What I don't understand is how it crashed - the filter has been running all the time. The only difference is that I added 5 Catappa leaves to the tank to try and treat cloudy eyes on one of the axies (the one that is still a normal color)... perhaps the decomposition of those was too much to take? They're still not decomposed. The tank is 102 litres (~27 g) and the filter is rated for a 200 litre tank (53 g).
Why did Axa's gill feathers and body turn black/dark? Has anyone heard of this before? Should I fridge? Temp is at 17°C like always.
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