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Please help,

L

laura

Guest
hi
Can someone please help?
we have had our axolotls for about ten months now and everything seemed to be going great. The tanks levels were good and the axies seemed happy. About a month or so ago one had a bitof fungus and i followed the advice on here to give him a salt bath and keep him in the fridge this seemed to do the trick, but the fungus kept coming back?
then the smaller axie shelmo got it too, i gave her the same treatment but then about a week or so ago she went off her food completely,last night she started to swim upside down on her back and then went limp. We put her back in the fridge to see if that would help but when i got up this morning she had died
sad.gif


Does anyone know why this has happened? and what i can do to help my other axie, i dont want him to die too?

hope someone can help thanks

laura
 
K

karrie

Guest
To me it sounds like some thing to do with the water. They sound stressed. What kind of stuff do you have in their tank? What is the temp? What are the tank readings?
 
L

laura

Guest
Hi Karrie

the water is sitting at room temp around 18 degrees?
ph is 6.0
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 0 ppm
ammonia 1ppm

the tank set up just now has small river pebbles (we did have gravel but the bigger axie kept swallowing it) a couple of tunnels, and pots for other hiding places. we dont have any plants at the moment as we weren't really sure which ones to get?
 
K

karrie

Guest
Your ammonia should be 0 also. How long has this tank been set up? What do you feed? How often do you clean? Was it the bigger axie that died?
 
L

laura

Guest
The tanks been set up for about six months now? we have been feeding alternately with frozen blood worm, frozen whitebait, daphnia and occasionally earthworms. I clean the tank 20/30% water change once a week, should we be cleaning more often? It was the smaller axie that died he was about 5-6 inches? the bigger ones is about 8-9 inches
 
K

karrie

Guest
Your tank has been set up long enough. The daphnia is to small I would stop feeding them that. I'am not shure what white bait is. Most people feed them only earth worm. When you change the water do you clean the rock. I'am not shure on this but I think the high ammonia is from wast in the water ( left over food or poo). I feed mine frozen blood worms I put them on a plate so they don't get trapped in the rocks. Thats why some people like feed earthworm easy to clean up after they eat. The 20/30 water chang is great. If you get some live plants that will also help keep the ammonia down. I also think the temp. should be a litter lower if poss. The axie that is left is it showing any sings of illness?
 
L

laura

Guest
he has a little bit of fluff on his gills, i have put him in the fridge for just now. His appetite hasnt changed and he is still as active as he was before? might sound silly but how do you get the food to stay on the plate and not float away? we've been hand feeding our axies
 
K

karrie

Guest
First you need to start salt bath again Do them for 7-10 days. If he is acting ok I wouldn't worry about putting in the fridge. The blood worms I defrost in a small cup with the tank water. Suck them up with a turkey baster vary gently squize them into the dish some still end up floating but for me it works really well. if you do it slow they will fall.
 
L

laura

Guest
thanks for your help Karrie ill try that and see how we get on
happy.gif
 
A

amber

Guest
White bait is a small type of fish.

Make sure you fillet any fish first, to remove the bones. If you don't know how, just ask.
Give them a varied diet for best effects.
 
kapo

kapo

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White bait here would be way too small to fillet! It's only a cm or slightly more in length.

Laura, regarding your water, do regular tests (every day or 2nd day especially as its warming up there) to see what your ammonia and nitrIte levels are. Do the partial 20-30% waterchanges after tests, if ammonia or nitrite is above 0. This should keep any toxins down.
 
J

jennifer

Guest
How large is the tank, and does it have a good filter and/or aeration? If a tank has been set up for 10 months and has that much ammonia, I suspect you have to be doing something wrong, but I don't know what. The amount of water change you are doing is perfect, so I would narrow down the possible causes as:
overfeeding (or lack of removal of uneaten food)
tank too small
not enough filtration
overcleaning of filter or surfaces (which wipes out too much of the beneficial bacteria)

I don't mean any of this to sound accusatory in any way. I hope you can figure out what's not working.
smile7.gif
 
G

glen

Guest
I would be reluctant to remove the bones from a small soft boned fish such as a whitebait - it would remove the calcium from the meal...
 
A

amber

Guest
*laughs* Sorry, I did mean bigger fish! :D

Remember, it's always worth varying diets - Spyyk went off bloodworm cubes for a while, so I tried her on fishing pellets - and that did the trick. She'll eat just about anything now.
 
L

laura

Guest
thanks everyone,

no offence taken Jennifer im just really glad for everones advice
happy.gif

the ammonia levels were high because we'd been away for a few days and the person feeding the axies for us left the uneaten food in the tank, but the wee one had been off her food before then and although it probably didnt help im not sure if that was the main problem?

the tank is 3ft long by about a foot wide? so there was plenty of room for them both, the filter is pretty old so that could be the problem?

im not sure if its over cleaning as i only do the small water change and clean the filter etc in the water i remove from the tank.
the filter does aeriate the water but do you think we'd be better investing in an airstone too?

thanks Kapo I'll start checking levels and doing water changes daily to see if it helps
happy.gif
 
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