Have you seen these symptoms before?

I bought two new axolotls about a month ago and apon arrival at my house these strange little "fish tails" have started appearing all over them, expecially in their gills. When i got them from the shop they looked ok. The look like snakes tongues, with a long stem and a fork at the end. Some of them are even bright green and blue!
I also bought two new plants so maybe they hatched off them? Its a relativley new tank and everything is very clean.
They also have fuzzy white dots appearing over them, and they have stopped eating, even feeder fish. One of them has barley any gills left and has strange growths coming off the remainder of his gills, and his eyes have a milky film over them.
can you please help me if anyone has seen any of these before and how to treat it? I have a 14 year old axolotl that is now infected
I've been watching my axolotls 24/7 and havent seen them fighting at all so these growths could not be from fighting wounds.

link to pictures: http://www.freewebs.com/sambobwae/lemrspage.htm
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

First things first, I assume from this post concerning your 14year old getting infected that you did not quarantine the new axolotls separately upon bringing them home for minimum 30 days. All new companions/feeder fish must be quarantined to ensure they do not contaminate or bring in any sickness or parasites into your current tank and infect any older residents, which seems to have happened.

The new ones that you bought in may have picked up a parasite, I really can't see it, but someone else may recognise from the picture you posted.

check out the following, it might help: http://www.axolotl.org/health.htm

As for the white stuff both on the eyes and parts of the body looks like it could be fungus.

The fungus can be treated with salt baths and may also need to be fridged to help them recover.

For saltbaths - need to be done 2-3 times per day until a week after the fungus drops off.
Use a foodsafe container for the saltbath
Use 2-3 teaspoons of tonic/aquarium salt or uniodised table salt or sea salt per litre of dechlorinated water. Mix the salt till it dissolves/crush the tonic salt to help dissolve.
Place axolotl in bath and cover. Leave for 10=15mins max.
Empty each saltbath after each use .



The disappearing gills can be attributed both to fish nibbling the gills or if you have poor water quality this can also affect their gills.

Have you tested your water parameters for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? What is your tank temperature?

i agree with kapo... the eyes look like fungus.....my axie had the same thing... most people use saltbaths, but i found it stressed my axie so i personally prefer melafix and pimafix ( most natural of the products out there)

If you use the medicines make sure to do them in a separate container from your tank, rather than adding them directly to the tank, there is a list of safe and unsafe medicines at the bottom of the link I provided you with - melafix being one of safe ones. Generally you have to be careful what fish medicines you use on your axolotls as they are more toxic to an axolotl.

I had the new ones in a seperate tank for a week before transfering them into the other one. The same with the feeder fish before i put them in.
The temperature of the tank is kept around 25 degrees C.
Will putting them in the fridge effect them in anyway? Never even heard of putting them in a fridge before :S
Will salt for a warm salt water (eg clown fish) tank work?
I check to water quality every week and keep it stable so I couldn't be the water.
I have a little machine in the corner that keeps the tank balanced in the cases of ammonia, nitrates etc.
I'm always watching and the feeder fish havent been touching their gills.

Your tank temperature is too high for an axolotl! This affects their immune system, they are cold water creatures. Axolotls ideally need to be kept in temperatures lower than 20C. They are not like fish and do not acclimatise - hence the reason for the fungus (they get stressed). I'd say the fishtail growths came in with either the feeder fish or your new axolotls had been infected prior to being bought.

One week is not a long enough quarantine period as you may have by now realised. Feeder fish are also known carriers of parasites. The 30 day minimum period if its adhered would probably have shown up the growths before infecting your older axolotl and could have been treated without infecting him.

Watching feeder fish doesn't mean they don't get a nibble in when you're not there.

Many salamander owners put their axolotls/newts in the fridge as you'll soon find out. Fridging slows down their metabolism and gives them a chance to heal. They are cold water creatures rather than warm, and can survive down to 5C. The wary ones on fridging seem to be the Aussies and NZers, compared to some of the international forum members who are more open to the subject.

For Fridge treatment:

Check the fridge is 5C or above by placing a glass of water in the fridge with thermometer. Check after 20minutes.

If its okay.

Then use a foodsafe container and put dechlorinated water in the container (make sure it has a lid).
Place axolotl in, cover with lid. Wrap with dishcloth and place in the fridge.
Ensure you place a couple of bottles of dechlorinated water in the fridge.
The fridge container needs to be completely emptied each day, so the bottles of extra water are for this reason - they need to be the same temperature.

These can also be used to mix up the saltbaths at the same temperature (or provide a cold medicine bath).

If you have an ammonia problem rather than resort to a little machine that keeps it balanced the best thing is find out why you have a problem - could be overload of animals/fish in the tank or overfeeding and fix it - frequent partial waterchanges daily; removal of excess companions/fish, etc...

wow that was very thorough. thanks alot

Can't add anything to what Kapo has said, and a relative newcomer, but I recommend fridging warm/or sick axolotls having recently had issues keeping mine (in Perth) around the 20 degrees. And tho Aussies and Kiwis may be wary, If you look back at prior posts on this site recently, you'll find many of us having problems with temperature control over summer and resorting/trying fridging. Mine recently spent 9 days in the fridge very happily (at 7 degrees celsius) during a heat wave here and really wasn't very happy at 23 degrees in his tank. Fungus is what happens when they get too warm and stressed, quite apart from the other water quality issues you need to consider.

I noticed from your pictures you have little stones in the bottom of your tank. They look like they are of a size that could be ingested by an axolotl. This can cause health problems due to impaction. Also if you have ammonia problems, the substrate might be to blame. You have lots of rocks and things where waste could become trapped. I'd recommend being very thorough with cleaning underneath them in future.

Edit for other users: If you view that website for pictures, make sure you have your sound turned down as there is a song that blasts out of it. My ears still hurt. Off switch is very small at the end of the pictures.

sorry, i forgot to remove the music, shall do so now.

just wondering also, how long can an axolotl stay in the fridge, I dont want to leave him in there too long :S

Thanks! had my head phones on at work and was nearly deafened...

I'm sorry about that

Thanks for every ones help, much appreciated, I'm sure my axolotls are grateful too :animal:

Hi Lemr,

There are several issues that could be effecting your axies health. You have a beautiful looking setup. However it does not seem to be a healthy habitiat.

I have not seen the "fish tail" growths before. The rest is almost certainly fungus and can be treated sucessfully in the manner detailed by Kapo.

Ideally 18 degrees celcius aboive 22 and your axies are starting to suffer at 25 things are very uncomfortable for them. At your tank temperature you are allowing fungus to flourish and bloom.

I strongly advise you to stop using whatever chemical water balancers you are using. Nothing beats time and patience for tank cycling. You need to keep an eye on your water parameters and do partial changes at least every week or more often as required.

Tank cohabitants are questionable some people do and some people don't. Many people who have experience loss of gill filaments on there axies. No one from memory has seen it happening as far as I know but none the less feeder fish will nibble at axies gills. Fungus will also cause gill filaments to fall off.

Substrate choice. The size gravel you have in your tank is ideal for fish but too small for axies they can ingest this size gravel which can lead to impaction and ultimately death.

You must quarentine any addition to the tank for at least 30 days this includes plants.

Have a look at www.axolotl.org all of it, it has heaps of helpful advice.

You can leave your axies in the fridge for a long time, in their natural environment they live in glacial fed streams and lakes so they don't mind the cold. One keeper in the states had axies in an outside pond that froze over in winter and they survived. They don't hibernate but there metabolism slows right down. Some aussie keepers keep there axies in the fridge for summer rather than battle trying to keep the tank cool.

I know it sounds weird but it really does work and won't harm your axie.

Check out the links and sites you have been given and follow the advice Kapo has detailed and things will get sorted. Oh and axies can go for a long time without eating aswell.

Good Luck

The "fish tails" may be anchor worm. See photo here (near the bottom of the page):
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/illness3.shtml
If it's anchor worm, there are medications available to treat it. They are sold to treat koi, and can be found in pond and pet shops.

I agree with Jennewt this looks like anchor worm. You will need a specific treatment for this but cooling in the fridge will help a lot with the stress meanwhile. The warmest part of the fridge is often the front of the top shelf, if the rest is too cold try here.