axie got munched

Fudge our new arrival got munched on after his salt bath, which he abhorred btw!, we put him into a quarrantine tank. temp 16 today, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and under 10 for nitrate. 1 live floating plant, filter and cave and good size gravel. The tank is only about 6L but he is so small its a good size for him to move around a little.

our female munched on him thinking he was yummy afrter he went phsyco after his salt bath.. i got her off him and found he had two tiny bits of broken skin which bled minutely for 10 seconds then stopped. thats when we decided to put him into the small tank till he gets better and bigger..

He isnt moving his arm whereas yesterday he was, after the attack, and it looks a wee bit pinky, he is an olive, and he isnt eating which i totally understand. i will tempt him every day till he eats, but Im just concerned with him being so little his arm injury... I know they heal really well, should I just keep monitoring him, i am really against salt baths now , so that is not an option i will ever use again!!!!!!, I have a wee bit of melafix in his tank.

fridge is way too cold for him and i cannot turn it up due to perishables. so that also is not an option....

My vet friend is out of the country for a month so i cannot contact him bout it so am I doing the right thing?

Salt baths are less risky than melafix and other medicines like that. Did you use too much salt perhaps or leave your axie in too long? Your axolotl's reaction sounds a bit odd for a salt bath.

What size is the gravel in the new tank? It must be larger than your axie's mouth so there is no risk your axolotl will ingest it.

If your axolotl has been bitten, just keep an eye on it to make sure there are no infections. But they will usually heal fine

Keeping him isolated should do the trick. I wouldn't blame the salt bath for what happened between your axolotls, though. Are they very different in size? Sometimes, larger axolotls bully smaller ones.

he is smaller than the other two.. but my params are perfect as perfect can be and he went nuts after the salt bath and spent like 10 minutes at the top of the tank gulping like mad.... I have found mela and pima fix to be wonderful and I personally swear by them...
I havent used salt baths in 2 years and this is the reason why.. I had this response before...

about 3/4 teaspoon of sea salt in 1 litre of water for 10 mins is all he had.. the water was rain water and the same temp as tank water. right now after a dose of each mela and pima he seems to be doing better, he is moving around and occasionally hiding in his cave... still not moving his arm but it may just be sore... nothing is hanging off it, nothing is sticking out. wound has closed over already, i gave him a little blue led so i can see what he is doing without stressing him out.His tank is in a very dark area.... underneath our other tank.
We are going to get some tank divider stuff and section a piece of the larger tank off for him, so he has more moving space when he gets better, that way also he is safe and happy whilst waiting to grow to the same size as the other two..

the one who munched him hadnt even worried about him before the salt bath.... because he was moving around so fast he must have looked really good so she munched, gosh are axies ferocious or what when they get a mouthfull of moving appendage!!!!!! I had to dong her on the head to get her to let go!!!

ATM his gills are flapping occasionally, not facing forwards and his tail isnt curved much at all, not interested in food, losing some of the filaments though, so hes being watched... plenty of oxygen to his water, had a 500ml water change as his nitrate went up.

His gravel size is tiny as is the stones in the other tank.... easily passed... only barely bigger than sand.. no concern for impaction..... we had one of the others eat a heap of the gravel and he passed it yesterday with no hassle...

Generally axolotls should be kept with axolotls of the same size only. Water parameters aren't really relevant to whether or not your axolotl will be attacked by the others. They often attack axolotls smaller than them.

Usually 2-3 teaspoons of salt per litre of water is recommended so try using more in future. Rain water can be an issue, I would suspect that as stressing out your axie more than I would a salt bath. Did you condition the water before the salt bath? My axolotl can wriggle around for a while when I move him to another container of plain water, not really a concern, I just know he is a bit stressed from being caught in a net...

Also if you are going to use medicines, generally you don't put the medicine in the whole tank. Use a container and treat your axolotl that way.

What are your nitrate levels? Usually you don't need to do water changes for nitrate rising. 10-40 level is fine. What were your levels?

hi,
the salt baths always come as a bit ofa shock to start with but definately are the way to treat injuries that become infected or fungus.
1 - 2 teaspoons per litre, 10 mins 2x a day, just make sure the temperature is the same as the tank you are taking him from.
i promise he will get used to it after a couple of baths.
i have a small golden that went ballistic the first 2 times and then was quite happy to sit there and wait out his time.lol
so please if you do need to bathe him in the future it is better then anything else.

okay. nitrate levels seem to be going higher but that is probably due to the small amount of water in his tank... he has spent so much time with his head above water but then spends the same amount of time under water....

the filaments on one gill seem to be damaged but the rest are perfect..

his injured leg.. now thats the interesting bit...... he is now moving it around, it doesnt look as pink and he seems to be shedding on that leg, either slime coat or flaky skin is hard to tell difference at this point.... he has a ring of white around the top of his leg but doesnt look fungusy, it looks to be the same stuff as is falling off his leg...
he isnt eating yet....
i will do a partial water change for the nitrate factor.... i only change at most 500ml as it is high compared to the other tanks..

It would be helpful if you posted the nitrate levels. Generally this is not a huge concern. I saw on another thread here you said they were 10 recently. 10-40 is fine so leave your water alone if it is in these ranges and just do normal cleans - only start doing water changes more frequently if your ammonia and nitrite are above 0.

Also, to repeat an earlier question - are you conditioning your water beforehand? If you are using rain water, there can still be quality issues with your water. Also rain water can be less consistent than tap water and is generally quite soft. So watch PH levels too.

our rain water is tested as perfect, and is tested every week.... our ph never varies from 7.2-3 hardness levels are all perfect aswell... but for now after different vets advice I've put fudge into the fridge with dose of melafix, will change his water daily with fridged medicated water, tomorrow he starts course of triple sulfa. his leg looks like it is about to fall off now. above where the yukky part is looks perfectly healthy, and his filaments are growing back already, hasnt eaten but was showing interest in food moving around the tank so after he gets out of the fridge im sure he will eat pretty quickly..

Your pH is fine. They don't need to be perfect for axolotls, as long as they sit within 6.4-8.0 axies can reside in those levels. Our pH levels are similar to yours ranging from 7.2-7.6 on our tanks.

Do you mean nitrItes or nitrAtes? If nitrAtes, what is your nitrAte reading? And do you test for nitrIte and ammonia? These two are the main ones to test for and if the levels go over 0 then you do a partial waterchange to bring them down.

NitrAte levels are not a problem unless they are over 80ppm+

Our cycled tanks parameter readings are:

ammonia 0
nitrIte 0
nitrAte 20-40ppm

both our full cycled tanks have readings of

0 ammonia
0 nitrIte
0 nitrAte

they had a spike of ammonia a few weeks ago and that was the result....

bubs tank had
0 ammonia
0 nitrIte
140 nitrAte

anyways. we put him into fridge... yesterday afternoon, temp 8.7 deg around about...
i think he is going to die.. he is now covered with white fungus all over his body, his leg is well and truly dead, unfortunaletly bone still intact, keeps rolling onto back and leaning sideways, sluggish is not the word for what he is... we did a 100% waterchange today with cold filtered water ( which didnt have anything nasty in it to begin with) same temp as his water. he is an olive who looks like a ghost.
his container in the fridge is covered so the light doesnt bother him too much...
nothing much else to say really.

Update On Fudge

He died this arvo.

Sorry to hear that Casaloxl.

Aww I'm so sorry to hear Casaloxl :'(