Illness/Sickness: Red veins..Please help me how to cure it!

On sunday my axolotl suddenly got red and his veins turned red and showed up, but on his belly he has spots with his normal colour. His tail is curled and looks dried and he doesn't eat. Can you tell me please what is it and how to cure it? He's just half a year old and I don't want him to die. I don't know if it's something with water, because I don't have any water tests but he had quiet dirty water with some poop, because I didn't have time to clean it but it wasn't anything horrible, so can it be because of it? When he started to look like this I've immediately put him to fresh water and to fridge and I started salt baths but on monday I read that salt baths are only for fungus, and this doesn't look like fungus so I changed it for tea bath. He has tea bath just one day but there are no changes. Please help..

Hey im glad your asking for help


1) What is the water temp?


2) Can you take your water to a fish store and ask them to test it?
It really sounds like a water quality issue and if you havent cycled the tank then it most definatly will be.
The last picture looks like it could be an ammonia burn.


You shouldnt salt bath unless it is fungus so im glad you stopped that and a tea bath will sooth him but you really need to get a water testing kit, a liquid one is what you need but in a pinch the strips are better than nothing.


Keep him in cool fresh dechlorinated water, if he is in a tub clean 100% daily, if you are putting him back in the tank to cycle it, clean 30% daily until the cycle is completed


If you do this he should hopefully start to improve in a couple of days time

Salt baths are a bad idea, they will make the skin worse. Only do them if you see fungus on your axolotl.

At the moment you need to do regular and small water changes in your tank to remove any build up of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. It's best to buy a test kit so you can check the water. It really does help and axies need clean water to survive. API master test kits might look like a lot of money but they last a long time.

This is the copy of tea bath instructions from the caudata culture website. It would help your axolotls skin.

Tea bath for axolotls
Contributed by Daniel Weiner, August 2007.

I mainly use teabaths for minor skin problems. It may also be used with fungal problems but on that account I prefer salt baths. Tea has a slightly antifungal and antibacterial effect (resulting from tannins) and additionally it closes the pores in the skin a little bit (mainly resulting from tannin and caffeine). The skin tightens and gets some kind of protective layer, making it harder for fungi and bacteria to intrude the body. On the other hand it makes it harder for salt or medicine to reach pathogens which are already inside the body - that is the reason I do not use it on fungal infections, although a tea bath is sometimes recommended as a cure for fungal infections by some people.

The medication is as follows: I take one bag of black tea without any additional aroma (it is important to use black tea because this kind of tea is fermented and so it has tannins) for every 10 litres of water (preferably used in a quarantine tank). This tea gets dashed with boiling water in a seperate bowl - I leave it there for at least 10 to 15 minutes so the tannins are resolved into the water. The tea has to cool down and is finally added to the quarantine water. After a week I make a bigger change of water (60% at least), the rest of the tea is removed over time by normal water changes. If you have to make more regular water changes (f.i. in a small bowl or tank) the tea concentration can be refilled. As far as I know there are no negative effects even for long term treatment.

A similar effect (although not as strong) may have the addition of dried oak or beech leafs now and then as a precaution.

Thank you for advices. Now he is in fridge in fresh water with tea. And how long it takes until he gets better? Should I take him from the tea bath to fresh water or can he be there for days?

Unfortunately he has fungus on his gills too.. I don't know what to do. I'm keeping him in tea bath and I'm doing salt baths twice a day but I'm afraid the salt bath will have bad effect on the amonia burn.

I would not do the salt baths, the teabath will hopefully be sufficient to clear the fungus. Do keep a close eye on the water, keep it cool and clean .

This is how he looks now.. I don't know if it's better or not.. he is still red with veins and that brown spots are the previous white spots..He's still in the fridge and in tea bath. It looks horrible..

It looks like the tannins in the tea have stained the damaged skin - it should fade in time as it heals.
I can't see any fungus - has it cleared up?

I thought that the white spots and whitened gills were fungus. But now the white spots and gills are brown, so I don't know.

I noticed that my eastern newt had red veins and tiny red rashes on his belly. I cycled 80% of my water with clean dechlorinated water and the red completely cleared the very next day. I'm a newbie but this solved my problems with redness...