New baby axolotl seems to be dying

Hi guys, I am quite lost right now. My new axolotl is 2 months old. It seemed okay yesterday although it was probably stressed. I changed the tank of water a few days ago and I saw that it appeared stressed with the blood veins over its tail and today when I looked at it, it was floating slanted and it was all pale. The gills have shrunk completely and its so small that I cannot tell if there were wounds on it. I bought it just 2 weeks ago at the pet store. I feed it pellets. It seemed to have gotten quite fat from eating the pellet so it's been 3 days since I fed it. I tried to give it a bit of food before throwing it in the freezer since I wonder if it's hungry but it looks chubby. I don't think it would take it since it wouldn't open its mouth.

It looks like it may die, I don't know what to do other than throw it in the fridge. It's barely alive. Is there anything else I can do for it?

I should probably give some specifics

Because it's a small axie and I wasn't going to put in the aquarium until it was a lot bigger. I put in a small tank. There are no air filters or water currents and I used tap water. I didn't bother with the anticoat drops that make the tap water safe for fish until just now since its dying. I just figured with the amount of water there is, adding destress coat would be too much.

The axie is about 3 feet away from an air vent but my room is facing the north so it gets all the prevailing winds. It has a tank cover but it has a lot of slivers in it. Infact I leave the tank door wide open.

those drops actually neutrify the chlorine and other heavy metals in your water.

by not adding these is basically giving you already stressed axie a acid bath.
being so small, they can get stressed alot quicker!

what i can suggest

- Set your fridge to about 5 degree celsius.
- Put your axie in a container large enough to allow it to stretch its limbs and tail comfortably.
- Fill with fresh dechlorinated water enough to submerge it but not allowing it to float.
- Cover with a lid. You can use a perforated lid or netting to prevent it jumping out.
- Use a tea towel to cover it to keep the environment dark.
- Perform 100% water changes daily with clean dechlorinated water.
- You can pre prepare bottles of water in the fridge.
- Continue to offer a variety of nutritious food daily. Try live wriggly food like blackworms, bloodworms, earthworms. You can also try the usual pellet, offer treats of shrimp and fish etc. Otherwise you can also blend everything in a food processor and then roll the resultant mash into a pea sized ball to try offer your axie. Remove uneaten food within 20 min.

I would try fridging your axolotl for 2 weeks and continually monitor for improvement. Please update on the progress every couple of days.

http://www.caudata.org/axolotl-sanctuary/Fridging.shtml

(thank ray for that)

Heya, I think it's dead =(...

Now that it's even paler I can see some yellow bulges around it's body. They are yellow dots here and there. I couldn't see it before and I want to hit myself for not noticing them. I'm thinking it's some sort of bacteria. Now that it died the bacteria just started multiplying and getting bigger. =( I'm sorry guys!

sounds like a fungal infection that has taken over.


all i can suggest, see if his gills are moving. if they are, im pretty sure they wont be for long.

as for the tank and everything, you will need to clean the tank.

i suggest:

buy a bag of salt, and scrub the walls with the rag...
boil all the decorations, this will kill the fungus.

ensure you rinse EVERYTHING really really well.

i would also suggest having a very good read of this site and also axolotl.org

educate yourself and hopefully, this wont happen again.

Aaron

Hi Hitman,

Thats some bad news, Sorry to hear about your loss.

Many people on this site, myself included got an axolotl before knowing fully how to look after it. After initial stumbling and mistakes and many posts here you will acquire all the knowledge on how to best keep and breed axolotls.

It is not necessary to have your tank filtered although it does make everything alot easier. If you have an unfiltered tank you need to monitor the water quality more closely and need to practise regular water changes.

It is very important to let water age eaither by letting it sit for a while or using a dechlorinator/ager. Stresscoat works well with fish but doesn't seem to work as well with axolotls.

Axolotl gills have 2 external components. Stubs- the stalky bits, and Filaments- the feathery bits.

If there was fungus you would have seen it. There are other factors that can cause Gill damage. I tend to think you you may be facing a water quality issue and the damage to your axolotl may be from ammonia burn.

I also suggest that the yellow spots on your axolotl are part of its colouring and became more visible as the body became more pallid.

Do you by any chance have your last water parameter test results? if so could you post them.

If you are of a mind to get another it may be prudent to get the tank cycled and ready before adding an axolotl. That having been said there are plently of keepers who cycle their tanks with axolotls in them.

If you haven't already have a look at these site Caudata Culture & the Axolotl site I think you will find them most helpful.

The death of any pet can be a terrible thing I hope that this doesn't deter you from getting another one. Truly once you have everything established they are not hard animals to care for.

Good Luck

Yeah I do have another one that is a one year old one, I had that one when it was only about 3 months old. So the size of the baby one is definitely alot smaller but it was growing fast in its little separate tank. I guess the bad part was I was so caught up doing major projects that I didn't bother to read how to take care of a baby axolotl.

And so it died. Especially since it was quite small it was really hard to see if there was anything wrong with it physically. It was eating properly too so it didn't hit me right away it could have been a fungal infection. Otherwise I would have given it a salt bath. I'm not sure what the water parameters were since I've disposed of everything. I make 100% water changes.

I'll hold off getting another one for now. Since I haven't had the time yet. It would take a lot of rereading in order to know how to raise a baby one from scratch.

Hi HitmanSougo13,

I would recommend you try taking a photo as soon as you suspect something unusual grrowing on your axie. Post the photos here as that would help with diagnosis.

It is a learning curve for everyone. Have a read of this article.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/why_larvae_die.shtml

Cheers