URGENT! Please Help! Very Sick Axie :( :(

So I recently went away for a couple of days, come home today to find my poor axie in a very bad state. He seems to have developed what im guessing is a very bad fungul infection. My immediate thought was to give him a salt bath and change about 80% of his tank water. I hate seeing him this sick and I'm not sure what my next step should be.. should I just keep giving him salt baths? I'm worried about fridging him because he seems so weak I dont know if it will cause him too much stress Sorry for my poor punctuation, I'm too worried to spell check

I am uploading photos now. He has started to lose his gills now too

Photos here: Caudata.org Newt and Salamander Forum - lucykate's Album: Fungus? What to do?

That looks more like skin irritation from ammonia or high temp.

Fridge him in clean de chlorinated water and hold off on the salt baths for the moment.

What are you water parameters? Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and temperature?

search this forum for information on indian almond leaves (I have bought them from ebay before you just float a couple of leaves in the water with the Axie and it helps soothe the skin) and tea baths as I think they could be helpful in this situation (if memory serves me correctly you steep a tea bag - just normal tea, in a mug/cup of boiled de chlorinated water then water down the result in 10 litres of cold i.e out of the fridge water, that has been de chlorinated, you then put your Axie in this water in the fridge - please double check this info though as I have no experience doing this, there are plenty of posts about it though so do a forum search.

Either way get your Axie in some cool clean de chlorinated water and if you can't get him in the fridge put him somewhere cool and dark.

Good Luck

Were these pictures taken before or after you changed 80% of the water?
I'm concerned how murky the water looks in the pictures!

Did you test the water prior to changing the water? What were the before & after test results for Ammonia / Nitrite / Nitrate?

What is the temperature of the tank water?

How long have you had this tank running / what kind of filter do you use & is your tank cycled?

It really looks like the effects of really bad water quality & doesn't look like it could happen in just a couple of days.

Please answer the questions about he tank as it will help us to understand what's affected your axolotl.

In the meantime I would just fridge your axolotl & use aged dechlorinated tap water (cold - kept in a jug in fridge)
•fridging guide found as a sticky in the sick axolotl section.

Almond leaves are great to add to your water while its aging & using a water conditioner / dechlorinator with Aloe Vera can also soothe the irritated skin.

Black tea baths are good & can be beneficial as it adds tannins to the water.
Taken from Caudata Culture
(Hopefully you can read it)





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Nice one Nikki, I've been looking for an 'idiots guide' to tea baths for ages!

Lucykate, if you don't have a test kit then take a sample of your water to a local aquarium shop, most do tests either free or for a very small fee (then come home and order an API master test kit off the internet )

First off, your axolotl is underweight. A good feed will do it some good. Go ahead with the tea baths, fridging isn't necessary usually but since you're in Australia it probably wouldn't hurt to. The cloudiness would suggest high levels of ammonia in the water so testing will help us be sure. If you could answer Nikki's questions it would help heaps and hopefully your little guy will be well on the road to recovery

Hi guys sorry for the late reply. I did a master test yesterday and found levels of nitrate in the water, everything else was fine. The guy at the aquarium suggested this was from using live blackworms as food? I set up a new tank and moved him into a cooler area of the house so now he is sitting between 16-18 degrees and his water is perfect. He still is looking very sick so I'm really not sure what the next step should be. My mum suggested Mercurochrome but I'm not sure about this.. any advice?

lucykate said:

Hi guys sorry for the late reply. I did a master test yesterday and found levels of nitrate in the water, everything else was fine. The guy at the aquarium suggested this was from using live blackworms as food? I set up a new tank and moved him into a cooler area of the house so now he is sitting between 16-18 degrees and his water is perfect. He still is looking very sick so I'm really not sure what the next step should be. My mum suggested Mercurochrome but I'm not sure about this.. any advice?

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How high was the nitrate?

What was the ammonia reading?

What was the tank water temperature before you moved the tank - just trying to ascertain what the stress causer could have been - its good you've moved it.

Live food will not create huge spikes - but waste & dead food left in tank will.
Live blackworms need to be drained & rinsed & their water refreshed daily! If the water in the worms is blood coloured & there's lots of white worms in there, the white ones are dead & very bad for water quality & not a good food for anything.

Doing a larger water changes for a couple of days 40% will reduce the nitrate - you need to work out why it got so high. Try & use aged dechlorinated water (keep some in large buckets with lids 24-48hrs)

Testing & changing the water regularly keeps nitrate levels to low levels which aren't toxic to your axolotl.

Adding some cooled black tea to the tank water will help to soothe the slime coat which is such to be at least badly irritated in your guy.

Don't use mercurochrome at all! It isn't something you would turn to as a first level treatment! Try the tea for now & order some almond leaves (gumtree / ebay) as it may take a time to get your axie healthy again & they add great things to the water.

Please keep us updated.



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Blackworms are also pretty calcium deficient, and shouldn't be a primary source of food for adults.

Good news! Barney is much better. His skin has pretty much healed completely and he even had some food last night. I have been giving him salt baths twice daily and I'm just wondering if I should continue on with them now that he looks so much better? I don't want to cause him too much extra stress. Also can anyone in Australia recommended the best food and place to get it. I have pellets and blackworms and was told by the guy at the aquarium to get either mealworms or bloodworms... There's just so many different opinions and I had no idea the blackworms were making my baby sick. I want to do everything possible to avoid this happening again!

lucykate said:

Good news! Barney is much better. His skin has pretty much healed completely and he even had some food last night. I have been giving him salt baths twice daily and I'm just wondering if I should continue on with them now that he looks so much better? I don't want to cause him too much extra stress. Also can anyone in Australia recommended the best food and place to get it. I have pellets and blackworms and was told by the guy at the aquarium to get either mealworms or bloodworms... There's just so many different opinions and I had no idea the blackworms were making my baby sick. I want to do everything possible to avoid this happening again!

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Most of the advice I've seen in the forum is that earthworms are best for axolotls. We have a composting worm farm that we purchased from Bunnings (you can buy the starter worms there as well) and use these worms to feed our axolotls.

lucykate said:

Good news! Barney is much better. His skin has pretty much healed completely and he even had some food last night. I have been giving him salt baths twice daily and I'm just wondering if I should continue on with them now that he looks so much better? I don't want to cause him too much extra stress. Also can anyone in Australia recommended the best food and place to get it. I have pellets and blackworms and was told by the guy at the aquarium to get either mealworms or bloodworms... There's just so many different opinions and I had no idea the blackworms were making my baby sick. I want to do everything possible to avoid this happening again!

Click to expand...

I'm not sure you've read a lot of the responses here - no one suggested salt baths. They are used to treat fungus not burned stressed skin. I suggested tea baths, not salt baths. His skin is terribly stressed & needs soothing - think about when you get out of the ocean & your skin is dry & crusty, if you have any cuts it stings like crazy.

you haven't answered the questions about the parameters & cloudy water.

Please read & answer what has been asked & don't do more than is needed - personally I don't think salt would have helped him as much as tea or almond leaves as a calming soothing treatment, salt is harsh & can do more harm than good if not required - especially to gills & stress levels.



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I have just re-read this entire thread & you were told more than once to NOT do salt baths! So please tell me why you were giving him two a day?

You have come to the best place for information - that information was provided very quickly & you were advised the best method of treatment.
Yet you ignored it..... Why?

I'm so frustrated that your poor axie is NOT getting good care & you are jumping the gun doing harsh treatments! Why bother asking for help if you already know it all?

I fear your water parameters & temperature have had issues for a long time & the fact that you do not even know earthworms are the best food - yet you've been a member here for months means you haven't cared to read about what is the best way to care for your pet & that really annoys me! After all the pour guy can't walk over & get some clean water for his tank & throw a few litres of putrid toxic water out - it's up to you to do the very best for any pet you have & I think you could do better..

Please read this thread properly & you'll see why I am so frustrated & sad for your lotl



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Any updates on your axolotl?



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