FYI: Warning: Ecoli and Coliform - Boil Water Advisories

I felt that it would be a good thing to make this post, as I have not heard any other instances of this happening.

Last summer I got a boil water advisory. A strain of ecoli was found in the water. I had, unknowingly, changed the water of my young axolotls some hours before the test was reported by news coverage.

I lost around 50 young axolotls around 3 inches and 3 axolotls at 4 1/2 inches at that time, bought from a member of this forums. I had done no other water changes that day.

I do not have pictures of this, but their skin was horrid. The slime coat was penetrated and their skin fell off in flakes.There was no sign of "burning" as found in ammonia burns, no redness. Just white. Most of the skin had come off in the matter of hours that I was out of the house.

I cannot verify that this was the direct cause of ecoli, but I had been changing their multiple water tubs every other day for over a month. The water was cold and dechlorinated properly every time - I had a process. The only explanation is the water itself, as the only problem happened the day the notice was sent out.

I had one left, one of the larger ones, that was still alive (barely). His skin was flaking, but I put him in clean spring water and into the fridge. He died in a few hours.


Yesterday I left to visit friends in another county for Thanksgiving. I had changed the water in three of my aquatics tanks. I returned tonight to find two of my axolotls dead and another boil water advisory notice. This was for ecoli and coliform.

The two dead axolotls were the smallest at 5 inches, and showed the same symptoms. White, no redness, and penetrated coats with flaking skin. I had three larger 6-7in. axolotls in advanced stages of this problem, their bodies becoming coated in white film. Two larger axolotls at 14 inches also had their coats penetrated, but were not as advanced. The white film is still over half of their bodies.

I also have two andersonis from a tank. Their slime coats were not penetrated that I could see, but the white cloud minnows from all the tanks including theirs were dead.

I rushed out to get spring water, and have managed to get them all into the fridge in separate containers. I moved them by hand because I did not want any contaminated water to come with them, and rinsed them through multiple tubs of spring water before placing in the final tub. The wild types shed black chunks of their skin and it stuck to me as soon as I touched them.

I do not expect more than my andersonis and my two 14inch wild types to live through this.

My water parameters were normal when I checked before I left, as I test my 40 breeder and twenty longs regularly, and have regular water changes. My temps were at 50-55 for the tanks, as they are next to the windows and I am wintering them. My ammonia tests after removing the axolotls were naturally navy blue, well over 8ppm from the dead minnows and axolotls that had been sitting there.

I had been gone less than 24 hours, and came back to this. It takes the smallest first, as I suspect their slime coat is weaker/thinner. These incidents have only happened on the days the boil water advisories for ecoli have come out.

I obviously have no scientific evidence for ecoli harming axolotls, nor do I know that nothing else was contaminating the water because the only contaminants stated in the reports by the water district was ecoli and coliform. They were stated to be from floods that may have carried animal or human feces into the reservoir.

I can only deduce that this was the cause of my incidents, as I know that my treatment of the water was done correctly. I am posting this as a warning to those who may receive the same warning at some point. If you get a boil advisory notice for ecoli, I advise the removal from potentially contaminated water immediately. I used spring water because I did not want to risk anything that was in the contaminated water that may stay with boiling and dechlorination, and because I had to remove my amphibians from the water immediately.

I also read this post from another member on my previous thread about ecoli:

Does anyone know what the max of contamination by E.coli may be before axolotls show infection ?

A friend of mine has 1n / 100ml in her drinking water since June and her axies are dying off one after another. While she's already treating them with an antibiotic and waiting for the sweep analysis we're desperately searching and eliminating causes for their disease.

Click to expand...

I think that this is also a bit of evidence, as another is also experiencing this phenomenon. I have not heard anything else from this member about their problem, however.

If you get a notice of ecoli, listen and be careful. Better to be safe than sorry, as I have learned. There is no way to verify that ecoli is the absolute issue in my cases, but I feel that the occurrences are too similar to discount it.

Thank you so much for sharing!

Wow. I'm very sorry for your loss. I'll make sure to look out for a water warning once I move my axies back to their tank. (Their pond uses rainwater.) May I ask what part of Portland you live near? I haven't received any notices, but I just wanna make sure it's not in my area. (Multnomah.) Thanks for the warning.

~Anthony

As expected, I have lost all my axolotls except for the two largest. The andersonis are still doing all right. The larger axolotls may or may not make it, since their slime coat is also severely damaged.

Antgarner, I live on the outskirts of SW Portland bordering Lake Oswego and Tigard. It's pretty much in between all three of those. The boil water notice was in Tigard this time. Last summer I lived closer to downtown Portland and that's where I got the first notice that killed my babies. It seems to be an ongoing problem with flooding. I'm not sure if it's really the coliform or if its actually chemicals that are also flooding into the reservoir. I do know we have detectable amounts of atrazine in the local streams here, I've done the analysis of the content myself. So who knows what's actually going into the reservoirs here when it floods.

Unexpectedly, I have also lost my male andersoni. Given that the andersoni looked the best of the lot, I am now feeling that it is likely I will lose them all. The two 14 inch wild types that are left aren't looking very good, and my female andersoni is shedding skin as well. I must not have noticed that the andersoni's coat had been penetrated because of their coloring, and how much they were affected by it.

Awful losses, especially the andersoni. I had given them priority and it still didn't matter.

*Hugs* Sorry for you loss- May their spirits play forevermore in the Great Lakes <3.
But also thank you so much for taking the time to pass this info on- I shudder to think of how many axies have passed because of this happening before you made the link. I can also see this being an important area of caudate research in the future- especially in determining if there's a chance the wild axolotl populations are still alive in those overpolluted canals, and if there isn't this death knell, how to stop them being lost forever <3

That's so scary And no way to be sure either, I guess. There's already E. Coli in our taps by the time they send out a warning.