Illness/Sickness: Gills are gone!

Ok.... Jim is in a bad way. His gills are literally falling off - see pics. I have been giving him salt baths for 4 days now and yesterday the gills were getting worse for it. It looks like a fungal infection though may be bacterial. Just wondering if I should continue to do the salt baths until infection disappears.

Sorry, does anyone else find it difficult to post pics on to the thread.....?
I'll try again.

looks like a fungal infection to me but i'll leave the prognosis to one of the experts here, i also noticed the legs are looking thicker(well...thicker than my axie's:happy...could it be morphing?

Hi Toptex,

Are you using fridging in conjunction with the salt baths? Fridging will help inhibit the fungus from spreading, and aid Jim in fighting off the infection.

What concentration of salt are you using in the salt baths (ie. how many teaspoons per litre of water?).

Also, how long are you leaving Jim in the salt bath solution? If the salt concentration is too strong, or Jim is left in the bath for too long (ie. over ten minutes), the salt can cause the gills to erode, and bleed.

And, how many times a day are you salt bathing Jim? (sorry to be the nag, but the more information you can give us, the better we can help).

Has Jim shown any signs of distress while being salt bathed?

Tackling fungal infections is a game of patience. Even with fridging and salt baths, it can take weeks to get rid of it.

Other than the fungus on the gills, Jim actually looks okay. He is nice and plumpish - which means he can stand going without food for a time while being fridged (if not already in there, I think this will be the best place for him).

With fungal infections, they occur secondary to an underlying condition. How are your tank parameters and temperature? What is the usual diet? Until those they rectified, the fungal problem will easily recur.

Try perform 2x salt baths daily spaced 8 hours apart. Each bath session should not exceed 10min. You can tease off the visible fungal elements with a Q-tip by swirling/rolling an edge of it it towards you, much like spinning a yarn. Ensure fresh clean water at all times and fridging is necessary.

There have been many tears in this house this morning. My son found Jim resting in peace (in the fridge) this morning. It really shocked me too.

I really thought I was doing all the right things. I used uniodised salt, 1 tsp/ litr in dechloranated water and bathed him for 10 min (not a min more) once a day for the last 5 days. He hadnt eaten in 10 days at least. Full water prams were great but I was having a battle with keeping the water cool. The temp of the tank was up to 25deg. I was putting frozen bottles only twice a day as I'm not home all day and it only took the temp down a degree or two. His diet consisted of earth worms mostly and black worms. I also truly thought that maybe the teasing off of the fungas from his gills contributed to his demise. I was using a very soft kids paint brush and it was falling off nicely. The following day the gills were a mess - absolutely covered in fungus and literally falling off. Poor old Jim.
We hadn't had him that long, since April this year, but he was our introduction to axies and since having him we now nurture 6 juvies and another adult axie, Goldie. They are in a separate tanks. Goldie and Jim were sharing but the first sign of the fungus, I moved Goldie to another tank. She is fine.

Thank you all for all your help. I couldn't have done all that I had without you.

I'm sorry to hear that. RIP Jim. It sounds like you did all you could you to help him. Mel x

You did everything right. Unfortunately the elevated water temperatures probably caused all the problems in the first place. Water temperatures of 25 degrees are in the 'fatal' zone. It might be better off fridging the axie through summer.

Using a clean fine tip paintbrush or Q-tip to tease of fungal elements is fine as long as there is no direct prodding or rubbing. The fungal 'threads' should be snagged to the Q-tip and then rolled away. The Q-tip doesn't directly touch the gills/skin. Direct contact could abrade the skin or gill surface, remove any protective slime layer and cause infections to go deeper.

That's so sad, sorry to hear of the loss of Jim.

So sorry to hear about Jim. We recently lost our male axi as well. Atleast you tried to save him. Try putting a bowl of ice on a table infront of the tank and using a fan to low the cold air at the tank. This is how i cool my tanks in the summer it works nicely.

Many thanks guys for your nice words. We've all been quite sad about poor old Jim. We had a nice little service for him last night and planted a pumpkin seedling (?!!) on top in memory of him.
Thx for the tip too Amanda hadn't thought of that one. I'm seriously contemplating some polystyrene sheets around the tank for insulation. Looks ugly but prefer that to a sick axie and it's only tempory. With Xmas coming on I cant afford to give up my fridge space!

A flying Jim....

Cheers.