Question: He keeps hurting his feet

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daremo

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Hi

Here I am again with my axie that keeps hurting his toes!

Can anyone see anything in the tank that may be the cause of him hurting his little fingers?
I removed the sand, now he's in a bare bottom tank but still has bloody toes, and the worse is that now he starts with bloody toes and then gets fungus, I have to do salt baths for it and he loses the flesh of the toes... it's like this fungus "eats" his fingers...

He's still normal, he eats a lot (an earthworm almost everyday), he swims, rests, comes to the surface when he sees me... he seems quite ok except that when he gets the fungus he tends to rise the affected hand

is there anything I can do other than salt baths? maybe there's something in the tank that is resulting in the fungus? I really have no clue now... I think I will remove as many stones as I can and put those glasses with plants, and I also though about making a "bed" into his cave with the java moss... could it be the glass of the tank that is hurting his toes?

tank1.jpg
tank2.jpg
tank3.jpg
 
I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in, but I'm pretty sure that fungal spores are always in the water, waiting for injuries to set in, and then they will take root. I wonder if, after his next salt bath, the solution might be to give him a long fridging time, so that he can heal completely, so that he's not vulnerable to spores when he goes back into the tank.
 
I am starting to think that there's something else in the tank that is hurting him, I didn't see him swimming or anything and I noticed another bloody finger...

is there a chance there's fungus or something in the tank that is attacking his fingers?
and if there's a possibility, what can I do? clean the whole tank? add anything to the water?
 
Your tank does look axolotl safe. One of my axolotl gets sore fingers, his tank mates are not affected.He is a melanoid that I raised, and he shares a tank with his wild type dad and leucistic friend. This improved when I added almond leaves/ sticks to their tank.
 
oh so maybe it's just like his "nature" getting these sore feet?
I feel bad about it, I really want him to be fine... he eats a lot, swims, everything "normal" but gets this bloody fingers and lately that leads to fungus and stress...

I don't see anything in the tank that may cut or hurt him, but I am thinking about removing the big stones and placing plants in glass pots like I did with those two plants on the side because he likes standing on plants... I thought that maybe he hurts with the stones, I don't know...
 
Hi Daremo

I hope your axy gets better.

When I ask for help, usually people make sure all the water chemistry issues are normal firstly. Perhaps you can post what all of your readings are? pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temperature.

My axy occasionally gets a bruised nose from crashing into things. When he gets stressed he swims a bit harder and then bumps into stuff. Personally, I think my issue is becuase I need another hiding spot. I'm wondering if your axy swims looking for a spot out of the bright light and catches its foot in between two of the bigger rocks or something. Maybe it wants another hiding spot too.

Good luck
Dave
 
Hi DavidF

Thanks for your comments
I have to buy new testing kits again ( and all I can find here are tetra) because I ran out of them, I took a sample to an acquarium a couple of weeks ago and they tested ok, 0 ammonia 0 nitrates, but I have to check again, the temp is at 19
My axie has a hiding spot (the pot cut in half) and that corner has some green paper stuck to it to make it darker, which he likes because he's usually resting there...

I will see if I can find another suitable hiding, I have a big PVC tube that I removed when I took the gravel sand out.. I thought about tanking most of the rocks out and see if that's the problem but I don't see him crashing into them when he swims.. not bad as to hurt himself at least!
 
I just checked the water parameters and they are ammonia 0 , nitrate 0
temp is 19° C

he got fungus on 2 toes, I just did a salt bath again...

Do you think there's something IN the water? I asked where I bought the axie and the guy recommended some "sulphamin" pills to the water or something like that and where I bought the testing kits they told me to change the whole water and add some anti bacterial thing...

I won't do anything like that until I am sure that will not harm the axie any worse...

any advice would be appreciated!
 
Do you still have his old tank? he has only been in this one a few months hasn't he?

I agree with jclee that maybe is something in the tank, I am asking if you still have the old tank running as he could live there for a while after the fungus has gone...if his toes get better in the old tank you know there is something wrong with new tank.

Tea baths are supposed to sooth axolotl skin problems...I don't think it help's at all with fungus or healing, but if it makes him a little more comfortable.

This is a long shot but are there any noticeable scratches on any of the tank surfaces? how about the edges of the half flower pot?
 
Hi Tom.
The old tank was cleaned, so it's not cycled and actually it's empty
I removed the plant pot and put the plant in a glass put, so it's not edgy at all...

there's no hard edges at all in the tank, I think I will remove most of the stones and add more plants for the good bacteria to grow, I am trying to find plants but it's not easy to find suitable plants in winter!!

I will try removing most of the stones and see if it's him hurting himself, but at this point I am unsure, could be something IN the water, but I don't want to add anything chemical to it without knowing it won't hurt the animal
 
I don't think the toes are being injured, and looking for sharp/hard things in the tank isn't going to help. (Thanks for the photos, by the way.) I think it's more likely some form of limb rot. I think Bella's post is on the right track - there may be some adjustment you could make to the water that would help. Do you have very soft water (in other words, low mineral content)? If so, you might want to consider supplementing the water, either with an aquarium calcium supplement or aquarium salts. Or as Bella has done, some sort of leaves or wood that would provided tannins and other natural compounds to the water.

What is your cleaning protocol? I would recommend allowing some algae to grow in inconspicuous places. A tank that is too clean can be almost as dangerous as one that is too dirty.
 
hi!
thanks!

I am already asking on ebay for almond leaves in case I cannot find them here...
I have the tank quite clean I have to admit... I try to have it as clean as I can, maybe I am making it worse ... I usually clean the bottom and between the rocks and take off all the debris I can find once a week or more if I see that he pooped (and he poops like once a week or once every 10 days even when he eats an earthworm a day!)

I have no idea how soft or hard is my water, I will find out and post my results.
I have marine salt that I bought at an acquarium, should I add some to the tank? would that help?
I am suspicious that the fungus is in the tank, when I was cycling it I added a log that got mould, I removed it but somehow I still think that "contaminated" the tank...
 
I did the hardness test (used tetra kit)

I got General hardness: 6
Carbonate Hardness: 1 or less, according to the instructions my water is very soft
PH is 7.5

he ate quite a big earthworm, his fingers don't show fungus anymore but are still reddish (two of them in his hinder leg)
His behaviour is normal, he comes to the surface when I show above the tank, he eats, swims...

so, I guess my water is too soft, what can I do? I am already looking to buy an almond tree and leaves, but until I can get hold of suitable leaves is there anything I can add to the water without harming the axie any worse?

thanks people!! I really really appreciate your help with this...
 
I have the almond leaves, can you tell me how to use them now?

thanks!
 
I added the almond leaf and yesterday it sunk.
Today I bought another anubia for the tank and I as I was talking with the seller he suggested that the aquarium where I bought the axie is a mess, they mix the animals and according to him they introduced some frogs with bacterias that affected local population... in any case it may be some kind of bad bacteria hurting him

anyway, he's still showing the reddish fingers and they usually are leading to fungus... they appear and if I see fungus I do a salt bath for about 5 min, they go away and then reappear back in another finger

in any case, the water tested soft for the hardness test and the PH is 7 now, the temp 19 and 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.

the axie is still quite hungry!! but since adding the leaf he's been in his "dark corner" or inside his hiding pot, and his gills are quite curly... not sure if it has something to do with all this...
 
Jennewt said:
I don't think the toes are being injured, and looking for sharp/hard things in the tank isn't going to help. (Thanks for the photos, by the way.) I think it's more likely some form of limb rot. I think Bella's post is on the right track - there may be some adjustment you could make to the water that would help. Do you have very soft water (in other words, low mineral content)? If so, you might want to consider supplementing the water, either with an aquarium calcium supplement or aquarium salts. Or as Bella has done, some sort of leaves or wood that would provided tannins and other natural compounds to the water.

What is your cleaning protocol? I would recommend allowing some algae to grow in inconspicuous places. A tank that is too clean can be almost as dangerous as one that is too dirty.
Click to expand...


Do I need to add any suplement to the water? it tasted as very soft for general hardness and carbonate hardness, I added the almond leaf and the PH is still at 7.
In any case, if I need to supplement the water, what should I add?

thanks!
 
Here is an article that discusses the use of salt in freshwater aquariums.
To Salt or Not to Salt?, using salt in a freshwater aquarium
If I were going to try this, I think I would use half of the recommended amount (1 tablespoon per 10 gallons, rather than per 5 gallons), just to be on the safe side.

If you want to supplement the amount of calcium (raise the calcium hardness), you can do this by adding a modest amount of shell-sand, bird grit, or calci-sand to the tank. There is also a product called "RO Right" that adds normal freshwater salts to water that is "too pure".

Regarding cleaning, I think that removing debris frequently is good. But scrubbing off the inside surfaces of the tank is bad.

Unfortunately, I don't have any sure-fire advice for exactly what you should do. Trying to adjust the hardness is a shot in the dark. It probably won't hurt, but there's no guarantee it will help. As you noted, this could be a bacterial infection. If it persists, you could try a round of treatment with antibiotics, but then there's the difficult choice of whether it's better to leave the tank untreated (keeping the good bacteria going) or sterilize the tank too.
 
I see...

If it's not really necessary to add anything, saying the hardness is acceptable as it is, I think I will wait and see if the almond leaf keeps the fungus away.

I don't like the idea of playing with the tank chemicals, but I don't want the axolotl to be hurting either, if he is hurting I have to do something about it..

I will wait this week and let you know.

thanks so much!
 
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