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fungus

casper

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My axolotls have a fungal infection mainly on there eys and on there girlls . i have been giving them salt baths for around 3 weeks , they seemed to become fine again at around 16 days , so i stoped for a day to wake up and find that they where coverd again:mad:. so i am starting again, this time with stronger salt baths before i was giving them 2 tea spoons to 2 liltres, this time i am giving them around 5 tea spoons to every 2 liltres , each salt bath is around 10-13minets long , 2-3 times a day
there tempretue is 15-17 ,19 at very hottest . they are eating quite a little .they are 15cm long , sorry i dont have a camera to take pictures. but i am thinking of using methylene blue , any views or help on this matter ?
 

tyl3r

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The accepted practice seems to be to continue with the salt baths for 1 week after the visible signs have gone rather than stopping immediately. Your stronger solution for 10 minutes twice per day is probably about right. I think you will only get recommendations of using methylene blue if all else had failed. It sounds like you'll be successful in ridding the fungus following this new regime without MB. However, do you know why they've succumbed to the fungus in the first place? It's often a temperature related thing but presumably that's not a problem here...?
 

casper

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I have them from a freind to noticed that they had fungus and was unable to look after them , so i rescued them , i checked the water temperature before i took them it was around 20 .
At the moment there fungus seems to be moving this second time around and grows back over night :(
 

Daniel

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This sounds like the fungus is only a secondary infection and that their immune system does not work properly (maybe they have an additional bacterial infection). Do they have any other signs of illness? Can you give us some information on your setup, water parameters, feeding habits and so on?
 

casper

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they seem to be eating fine , the water is fine , havent done a nitrite test , but the amonia is quite high as there tank is still cycling :(. but they are showing no other signs of illness , i am about to use methylene blue :confused:. any iders on usage?
 

Daniel

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Can't help you with the dosage of methylene blue but what do you mean with "high ammonia"? If you have ammonia readings, you should change part of the water because ammonia will stress them and become toxic.
 

gr33neyes

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I have a feeling Daniel has a point about there being some secondary illness or problem somewhere.
Something is obviously going wrong.
Yes your tank is still cycling, but I cycled my tank with an axolotl in it and didnt get the problems you are having.
How often are you carrying out water changes? and what percentage are you removing?
I had a very small fungus problem on my youngest axies gills about 2 months ago, but I eradicated that overnight with a 40% water change and manual removal of the fungus (not something i would recommend to everyone but it worked for me) and I havent had a problem since.
As for methylene blue, I'm not sure about using that. Ive never used anything in my tank, never needed to. Find out all you can about it before you add it, I would hate to think it added to their discomfort.
 

tyl3r

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casper said:
...the amonia is quite high...
It sounds as if you're trying to fix the wrong thing, casper. Axys don't generally get fungus infections unless there is an underlying condition or environmental situation which is overloading their immune systems. It seems that you're intent on using MB - perhaps because you've bought some already? I really think you should look at their tank/water/parameters etc. because assuming the MB dose doesn't kill them first then they'll be prone to fungus again once its efficacy has waned.

Edit: oops, clashed with Becky. I think she put it nicer. ;)
 

casper

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no i haven't got any MB yet. there ammonia reading is high at .4mg/l and there temperature is still 17-18 . i have been doing a 20% water change each day and cleaning there tank ( leaving no dead food or waste leaving none at all), i am still doing 3 salt baths a day they seem to slightly loosing fungus but its still coming back over night. but latly over the last two days they seem to loosing more then usual .
 

casper

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what do you guys think to keeping them in a separate tank and doing 100% water changes? do i have to do anything to my normal tank to keep it cycled?
 

tyl3r

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They're definitely struggling so perhaps a more sanitised environment (possibly even fridging) with 100% daily dechlorinated water changes whilst they recover is the way to go.

As for keeping your tank cycled - well, I think that's possibly part of the problem anyway. If it was truly cycled then you wouldn't have any ammonia readings in the first place. Assuming you get your axys out of the tank for a while (as above), then you could leave the tank until the ammonia goes down to 0 (ie bacteria has built up to process the NH3/NH4) and then start tipping the old water from their daily water changes into the tank to keep feeding the bacteria in the tank. Once the NH3/NH4 has gone to 0 you'll probably find the NO2 value rising and you're into a longer session of feeding the bacteria and partial water replacement until the bacteria that processes NO2 into NO3 has built up. Ultimately you want a situation where the output of your axys is going into the tank (directly or otherwise) where the NH3/NH4 readings are 0, NO2 readings are 0 and the NO3 readings are then climbing. Since NO3 is the least harmful of these nitrogen compounds you can then get away with weekly / fortnightly partial water changes.

Sorry for bashing you a bit on MB. I've never used it and I think few people have (judging by the lack of responses you've had to your direct question about dose). I've read a bit more about it and, perhaps, it is suitable to your situation, although I would personally persevere with the cleaner environment and salt baths. If you were to buy some then I would expect there would be dosing information with it. Suggest you read the information carefully and double check (even have someone else re-read the dosing calculations with you) before dosing.
 

casper

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OK, I will put them in a separate clean tank and do the 100% water changes while their main tank continues cycling. also continue with the salt baths. doing the ammonia tests i have realised that it has risen and peaked now has started to fall so i think it is hopefully on the right path. thanks for your help.
 
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