I'm at a loss

My female wild axolotl , Ni Ryong, has been stressed due to water contamination. She was in a 55 gallon tank with her buddy Sa Ryong and both were sticking close to the surface three days ago. I changed the filter and cleaned the tank and checked the water afterwards but her skin was starting to peel off on her tail. She wouldn't eat and I moved her to my bucket that I use for syphoning water and made sure to keep it cold and clean while using Reptisafe to help promote her slime coat and to generally treat the water. I have well water that is definitely on the hard side so I'm not really worried about chlorine but there could be other contaminants. I also wanted to make sure she wasn't getting a fungus or bacterial infection so I've given her a NaCl bath three times over the past three days (~7min per bath) and am done with that procedure since I think it was just the pH of the water was too acidic. It's been three days since I placed her in the bucket and she seems better at the moment with no visible signs of stress (other than a small patch of skin missing on her tail). What I'm worried about now is that the membrane around her tail has shrunk and so have her gills (though not disappeared completely) which might mean that she could be starting to metamorphose (something I really don't want). Her eyes are still their normal set and haven't begun to bulge but she makes frequent attempts to gulp in air regardless of how clean the water is. I'm really, really, really hoping that the damage done is reversible and that she won't metamorphose but I need your help. Is there anything I can do to help insure this? I have access to a wide range of certain salts and chemicals being a biochem major if it requieres something that drastic (though I hope it doesn't). Thanks.

hey don't worry about the gills - I don't know for sure about the tail - but after a horrific incident here with catfood being mistaken for salmon pellets - my surviving axolotl regrew his skin - it sloughed off & his gills are back with all the glory they ever had after completely disappearing.

Keep the new water hyper clean. I netted him out and dumped his water every day, rinsed him under running water at nearly full blast to debride him of dying skin. It worked. No meds, no chemicals.

I hope she turns out ok!

Sharon

Hi Trev,

First, please be assured (in a way) that it is extremely rare for axolotls to metamorphose. The down side of that is that if water conditions are so poor that they cannot survive in the water, most will simply die - not "escape" through metamorphosis.

Now down to the problem at hand. At a first guess I would say that water quality is at issue. The subsequent treatments with various substances cannot have helped, in my opinion. I do not know what Reptisafe is but as I can't think of any reptile with a slime coat, I am unsure as to how this could help an axolotl. Salt baths are aggressive measures and should not be applied without specific indication - not as a preventative measure.

A good preventative measure and also something that helps with shedding skin are tea baths. More about tea baths is down the page a bit in this article:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/illness2.shtml

Can you test the water parameters in the aquarium? Besides temperature, the levels of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are important. What are your readings for those?

Axolotls are wonderful at healing, but you'll first need to correct the factors causing the health issues, or they will return. (Sorry if that sounds pedantic; I just want to be thorough.)

Sharon - I mean no offense and I'm trying to choose my words carefully, but holding an axolotl under water running at full blast seems like a kind of torture to an animal that normaly suffers from the water flow of most normal filters. Placing more rocks, etc., in the tank can aid in shedding, as can the tea baths mentioned above. To remove things like fungus, etc., one can try a short, quick "puff" of water from a turkey baster - but in the case of shedding skin, I would let nature take its course.

-Eva

I agree with Eva. It sounds like ammonia burns.

Thank you all for the information. She does seem to be doing better now and I'm relieved to hear about the fact that she won't metamorphose (hurray). I guess I got a little carried away with the salt baths because I wanted to make sure that it wasn't a fungus or bacterial problem and won't plan on continuing that procedure. As for the skin problem I am definitely appreciative of the tea bath information, Eva and now I'm waiting for it to regenerate while keeping her in clean and cold water. I also agree about the cause probably being water quality since I syphoned about 20% of the water and had cleaned the filter (which was clogged with plant debree). Regarding the Reptisafe solution I think it's okay to use. On the label it says it's not only for reptiles but also specifically formulated for amphibians and arachnids and is manufactured by ZooMed. On the back label it has written that the ingredients are a dechloroaminating agent, colloids, a chelating agent, and electrolytes. If any of that sounds harmful to axolotls please correct me. As for testing for nitrates I do not currently have a kit but was just today looking up the price for one at the store that I go to for all my aquarium stuff. I do have live plants (with roots) in my tank which I was hoping would aid in control of nitrates becuase I had assumed that even though they were underwater plants, they would have nitrogen fixing bacteria anyway. It could be possible that the river rock that I have as my media is trapping the nitrates underneath. I also had a freshwater clam in the tank with them to try and act as a natural biological filter as well. Thanks again for all your help. When something is wrong with one of my pets I tend to panic and quickly overreact. Fortunately, I have a great resource of information to help

Hi Trev,

I don't know about the Reptisafe at all; I can't even pronounce the label information, much less decide on its suitability for axolotls. If nobody answers within te next couple of days about it, maybe you could ask in a separate thread in the "Free for all" section?

Nitrates aren't so much of a problem as the other two, nitrite and ammonia. Yes plants will consume some of the nitrates, and by doing water changes you are eliminating as much as you can, anyway. Fine and proper tank maintenance.

The thing I am worried about is ammonia - basically an elevated ammonia level means that your tank is septic. If you have ever gotten ammonia on your hands before, you can imagine what it must be like to live in a tank full of the stuff.

Ammonia is at the very start of the nitrification cycle - nitrite comes next, followed by nitrate (again, sorry if I'm telling you something you already know). My guess would be that either your tank is new, or something has happened to turn it septic. Daily water changes are the solution, whatever the cause, and test kits for ammonia and nitrite (NO2) will help you monitor what is going on.

Have you checked your clam? As I understand it, they require a very large amount of water - I hate to suggest such a thing, but could the clam be dead? Its carcass would release a lot of waste into the water, explaining why you culd be having trouble.

Hmm, I am having difficulty estimating your level of experience with aquaria in general and axolotls specifically, so I don't know if I have provided enough info or too much or only hinted at several things without providing any info at all. If you need more info, please ask - and if I've given too much, please forgive.

-Eva

Guten Abend Eva,

Any information is good information (whether I know it or not) since I can't and won't think of everything so it's good to get another persons perspective (especially if they have a lot more experience than I do on the matter). In general I've had an aquarium for about 4 years now (my first pet being my north-eastern painted turtle) and I've had my axolotls for about a year and a half. I usually don't have problems with them which is why that, when I do, I panic. It's funny that you asked about the clam dying because it DID die about two weeks ago. I had cleaned the tank then but I don't remember finding the carcass. I've cleaned the tank once since then so maybe I got it and maybe I did not. I'm definitely going to look for it again tonight. As for the solution I use I will definitely follw your advice and keep my eye out for anyone else with knowledge on such a topic. Thank you so much for your help and your patience. There really is no way for me to repay you other than my thanks and that I plan on donating to caudata.org. Ich gefallt mir viel besser. Danke schon und bis dann.

Trevor

I would just forgo the repti-safe. It's probably not harmful, but it's also probably not necessary. And the more 'stuff' you add to the tank, the worse off it will be in the long run.

With the new information on the clam, I really think its ammonia burns. The dead carcass will rot and release large amounts of ammonia. I would get an ammonia test kit as soon as possible. In the mean time, 20% water changes every few days would be beneficial at getting the ammonia level down. Keep it in fresh water (changed daily), and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days. This will help it regenerate some of its skin.

Gutem Morgen, Trevor!

biotrev said:

There really is no way for me to repay you other than my thanks and that I plan on donating to caudata.org.

Click to expand...

No need - it's what the forum is here for. Donating is always good because the makers of the site invest an impressive amount of effort in maintaining the high level of usefulness, and every little penny helps. And then you start answering questions that others ask, when you know the answer. You just try to give back what you've been given, right?

Do keep us posted on your two.

-Eva