Illness/Sickness: Mysterious Killer- Take Vet action immediately if any of these signs appear!

Hello fellow lotl-lovers, I come baring grave news.

Recently, two of my 5 axolotls have been afflicted with a disease of which I was unable to identify or even find previous occurrences of online.

The follow images in this album are graphic and tragic, and I post them only because I wish to help prevent this disease in anyone elses' axolotls and hopefully save a life.

http://imgur.com/a/lUHmf

Although I was unable to find a vet able to identify the problem, I strongly recommend taking your axolotls to the vet ASAP should they display anything even remotely similar to the photos above. I hope this album will help or serve as a warning, even if just a little.


Some background information, I have had these axolotls for about 3/4 of a year now, and raised them from their youth. They share a 55 gallon, planted tank with a substrate created one part sand, two parts minor pond soil. I am a "veteran" aquarium enthusiast and own two other aquariums and a 2k gallon pond. This is the first and hopefully last time I encountered a problem to this magnitude and wish anyone who is afflicted by this... monster... all the luck in the world in solving it, and succeeding where I could not.


As with everything in life, there is always a silver lining. Although I am down to 3 adult axolotls, my ~20 bouncing baby axolotls are well on their way to adult hood and are healthy and happy. Thank you for reading and be sure to tell your axolotls you love them! You never know when things like this will happen.

I am so sorry for your loss. In the pictures you never would've know he was the same axo before and after. Thank you for alerting us and hopefully you don't suffer any more losses to this disease!
On a secondary note, I would quarantine the 3 other surviving axies and then do a thorough cleaning of their tank. Could it have been introduced through their food source? :'C

poliwag was so cute and healthy looking

I am so sorry for the loss of your two axxies. It's so true they looked happy and healthy before they got sick.

I think you're right. It's either bacterial or viral.
I found this on Erdington Aquatics:
Swelling

While some axolotls are finicky eaters, others will keep eating as long as you offer them food. Overeating can cause them to plump up like a balloon at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Reducing the amount of food per sitting, or feeding less often will allow them to slim back down.
As eggs form within the female axolotl's body, they cause her abdomen to swell. If you notice growth just in that area and nowhere else, this may be what you're seeing.
More serious is gross swelling of other areas like the head or cloacal region. These indicate failure of a major organ like the heart or kidney and are not, to my knowledge, treatable. Your best bet is to find a veterinarian immediately and prepare for the worst.

It sounds like organ failure. Were your 2 affected axolotls related at all? It doesn't say on here what causes organ failure, but I will guess that some viruses or bacteria can cause it.

Petersgirl said:

I am so sorry for the loss of your two axxies. It's so true they looked happy and healthy before they got sick.

I think you're right. It's either bacterial or viral.
I found this on Erdington Aquatics:
Swelling

While some axolotls are finicky eaters, others will keep eating as long as you offer them food. Overeating can cause them to plump up like a balloon at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Reducing the amount of food per sitting, or feeding less often will allow them to slim back down.
As eggs form within the female axolotl's body, they cause her abdomen to swell. If you notice growth just in that area and nowhere else, this may be what you're seeing.
More serious is gross swelling of other areas like the head or cloacal region. These indicate failure of a major organ like the heart or kidney and are not, to my knowledge, treatable. Your best bet is to find a veterinarian immediately and prepare for the worst.

It sounds like organ failure. Were your 2 affected axolotls related at all? It doesn't say on here what causes organ failure, but I will guess that some viruses or bacteria can cause it.

Click to expand...

I had originally considered Kidney failure, but then the boils started bursting and appeared to only be in the first layer or skin. So strange.


Side note, thanks to everyone for the well-wishing. I have already done a deep clean of the fish tank. I am not sure if the food could have introduced the problem, I get frozen blood worms from Al's Aquarium, aside from the babies eating brine shrimp fry in another tank, this is the only food any axolotls I have, have known. It is still a possibility though.

I'm stumped.
There is a similar case to this on another thread, but that axxie has water-filled blisters too. He only has a swollen mouth though.
I really hope he doesn't have the same as this.

I really appreciate this information, I just wish it hadn't come at the cost of your axxies

This is terrible. I'm so sorry you had to go through this with your little guys. Thanks for taking the time to detail it for us. I know that couldn't have been an easy task.

Its certainly odd. Especially as the food, frozen bloodworms, will presumably be the safest, as it will have been gamma irradiated to destroy any bacteria. Speaking of diet, perhaps that might be part of the problem? Bloodworm is not generally recommended as a staple, it has been suggested that it might eventually lead to deficiency diseases. We are usually recommended to feed with earthworms.... Just a thought.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Dear Garrawr,

I'm a bit late with my reply, but I just wanted tosa, first of all, I'm so sorry for your loss! There isn't much that can be said to make it better, but after looking at the photo album you posted, I just wanted to briefly share my experience with you.

We had an axolotl that passed away in July last year, due to an advanced bacterial infection that damaged his internal organs, got septisemic and finally killed him. He looked very similar to what I saw in your photos - the swelling and the way he was lying on the bottom. Also your description sounded so familiar! Ours just didn't have any blisters, although he could have developed some if I had left him in the tank, who knows. But he was put in the fridge very soon as he stopped eating and started looking unwell, and he spent a long time in the fridge, where he looked fine but with every time trying to return him into the tank (and normal temperature) ending up in a disaster. This thread shows some photos of him, plus outlines our experience as to what happened and also what we learned from the vet. Maybe some info there is of assistance to you as well, to try and figure out what was going on!

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...-did-not-go-well-i-think-pear-dying-help.html

All the very best for your other axies! I hope they are all doing well and this disaster is now in the past, a lesson learned (with a very high price!) that hopefully prevents it from happening again!

Paivi & 4 axies