Illness/Sickness: I'm new to this site. HELP! my axie isn't feeling well

Hello
I'm new to this site.

I have two beautifil axies. The first one is a white albino male called Pepper and he is 21cm long. Pepper I have had for quite awhile now without any issuses. The second is a golden albino (possibly female??) and Honey and she is 19cm long. I bought Honey only a month ago.

Over the last week, Honey has stopped eating and stopped moving. Her skin is peeling quite badly and her gills have curled and are shrinking dramaticaly! Her gills have also become nearly colourless. She is losing weight but hasn't become completely skiny yet.

She was living in the same tank as Pepper, however when Honey started peeling I moved her into a seperate container. She has been having salt bathes.

Like I said before, Pepper is completely fine and happy in his home. The water is aerated without having a strong current. The pH level is normally at 7.2, no ammonia or nitrite. The temp is about 11 - 14 degrees C. I replace 20 - 30% of the water every week.

Help, whats wrong with my axie?
Kira

Why are you giving them salt bathes. is their an open sore or infection. Is honey floating and the tank sounds very cold for water in australia.
:angel:

Stick Honey in the fridge. It will slow down the weight loss and buy you time to figure out what is wrong.

Hi Kira,

The water temp sounds fine, I wouldn't change anything on that. How are you testing ammonia and nitrate - are you using dropper ("test tube") tests or the dip strips? If you are using the dip strips, this could be your problem - they LIE.

You have done well to separate Honey. You might want to put Pepper in a quarantine bucket, too, until you can figure out what is happening in your aquarium.

If you are using test strips, please try to make the initial investment of the dropper tests. If that is not possible, you can take a sample of your aquarium water to most aquarium shops and they will test it for you for free.

I would also stop the salt baths until I had a better understanding of what is happening. Salt baths in themselves are not completely harmless/painless.

Is it possible for you to post a picture of your tank setup in general and a closer photo of Honey in particular?

-Eva

Ok so this morning when I got up I thought that Honey looked a little better. But this afternoon she isn't doing too well at all! No movement, not even when I touch her a little. But she is still alive, THANK GOD!!

I have been using the test tube kits (I have had Pepper for 8 years now so I made the investment), and I had been bathing Honey is salt bathes because she has a small cut on her tail and I thought that her problem might have something to so with a parasite. I went away last week and my brother was feeding my axies for me and decided to feed them a live worm (I have know idea why! I was very very detailed when telling him what and how to feed them!), thankfully Pepper didn't eat the worm, however Honey did. She has been sick ever since.

Her gills have shrank some more since last night and she is very pale.

I will try and get some photos.

Hello again! There isn't much need to stick Honey in salt baths because there isn't any fungus. Clean water should suffice. There generally isn't anything wrong with feeding worms to axolotls as long as they weren't exposed to pathogens or pesticides. In fact, earthworms are quite good for axies.

Honey is 100% again! Not sure what was wrong but it has sorted itself out and Honey is doing great.

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, but my daughter has been in hospital and I have been a bit busy.

Thanks everyone!