Sick, need advice!..

My Axie grew ill after a water change. Gill feathers shrunk, not eating, and slimy white stuff from his body and gills appeared. Did a lil online research and made a decision to change the water again according to what I researched but, today after a day of the totally new water now his gills are curled forward, red, and there is more of that white slimy stuff on him. I've had them for about 2 weeks. I have 2, the other seems fine and still has an appetite, and is even gotten bigger than the other because the other won't eat. I have a marina i25 filter in with them. I had just changed the water again because after more research it may be the water. I used un cycled water. So this time I used half water from another fish tank and half tap water with dechlorinator and ammonia chemical thing. I need help as he don't look to great and I don't want to lose him. Sorry to ramble and ask you all this but I don't know what else to do??? It's just that it's is weird that one is so ill and other is fine. Thank you so much! Feel free to ask any question.
Robbie

Are you dechlorinator your water correctly? And it sounds like you haven't cycled your tank either. Redness is usually some form of chemical burn such as ammonia, if your tank is uncycled you will need to do water changes daily to bring readings down to a suitable level and monitor your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. It may take weeks to cycle so be patient. If your tank has 0 ammonia and nitrite and some reading of nitrate it is cycled.

For now perhaps separate the sicker one and place him in a tub of cool dechlorinated water and change that tub of water daily.

I didn't cycle it was tap water, I added dechlorinator and ammonia drops and figured it would be ok. I can't afford test kits to test the water right now. I did look into our water supplier and the ph level is fine. But why only one? And one fine? Weird..

You seem to have a misunderstanding of tank cycling. The water itself isn't what is 'cycled' - you still do water changes in a cycled tank with dechlorinated tap water. The cycle exists in your tank itself - the beneficial bacteria adhere to porous surfaces, such as rocks, decorations, and most importantly your filter media. Your filter media is what holds your cycle, not the water.

Here's a good article on tank cycling, I highly suggest you give it a read! :

Scales Tails Wings and Things, What is Aquarium Cycling? How to Cycle your Tank


You really should invest in a liquid test kit if you're going to keep aquatic life.

So basically try to make the water dirty but in a good way for them? It says on that link that it can take up to 6 weeks. I fear my one axie won't be able to be int this state for that long. Anything I can do for him In the mean time? He's hardly moving, doesn't go up for air anymore. All this happened in just 4 days. It's so sad to just sit here and not know what else to do when he is obviously needing help =(

Some axolotls can be affected differently, weaker immune system etc.


For now, like I said above, put the sicker axolotl in a separate tub with 100% daily water changes of dechlorinated water and monitor your tank water with your other axolotl. Like kaini said, if you want to keep aquatic life you need test kits.

If I'm able to test the ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite some how. What do I need to do to balance them out to a right level, like if ones too high how do I lower it and vice versa. I've tried searching for the info but I only got "buy this chemical to balance it" where could I find more info on that?

You don't want to balance your levels with chemicals. Did you read the article on cycling...? It's not about 'making the water dirty in a good way' (...what?) it's about establishing the beneficial bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite then nitrate. You need to understand the process if you're keeping aquatic life.

but like Hayley said, right NOW you should get the sick Axolotl into a separate tub of dechlorinated water and do 100% daily water changes until it improves.

Do you know of anyone with a cycled tank? If so, what you could do to help speed along the process is get some water and tank decor from that tank and put it in yours. Alternatively, you could get pure ammonia WITHOUT ANY SURFACTANT and add that to your tank. Either way, cycling should be done in an empty tank.

robopetz said:

If I'm able to test the ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite some how. What do I need to do to balance them out to a right level, like if ones too high how do I lower it and vice versa. I've tried searching for the info but I only got "buy this chemical to balance it" where could I find more info on that?

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While they do have chemicals to help balance out nitrite and ammonia levels, that could affect your ability to cycle your tank. I'd suggest not buying any such thing, move your animal to a smaller container where you can change the water daily, and monitor the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels daily in your larger tank. What you should see when you start cycling a tank is an increase in ammonia levels in terms of parts per million (ppm), white nitrite and nitrate have levels that cannot be read by your testing kit (as an aside, I'd suggest using a drop based testing kit as they are more sensitive than the strip testing kits). As time goes on, ammonia metabolizing bacteria will populate your tank and produce nitrite. You will know when this happens when you see a decrease in ammonia levels and a concomitant increase in nitrite levels. As time continues, nitrite metabolizing bacteria will populate your tank along side your ammonia metabolizing bacteria to produce nitrate. Much like before, you will know when this happens when your ammonia levels are low to undetectable, your nitrite levels are decreasing, and your nitrate levels start increasing. This nitrate can be consumed by any tank plants you have in your tank, but not all of it. Any this point, you will have to do a water change to remove any nitrate that has accumulated in your tank. Your tank will be cycled when you have undetectable reading for ammonia and nitrite. However, for maintenance you will want readings of 0 ppm for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate so you will have to do regular water changes to make sure such a reading is maintained. To speed this along, I'd also suggest adding a heater for the soul purpose of cycling (remove this heater and cool the water down before adding your axolotl back) to keep the temperature of the tank around 72-75F ( the bacteria would be more likely to proliferate at such a temperature). I hope this helps.

I'm afraid to do 100% water change because this is what started it all. Please forgive me if I sound uneducated in the axolotl world. All I have been doing is reading, researching, just everything axolotl before and after I got mines.

My last water change I have used half water (from a cycled tank I've had for a while now, and no issues with) and half tap water with dechlorinator.

Sorry y'all I'm just a very worried parent here..

robopetz said:

I'm afraid to do 100% water change because this is what started it all. Please forgive me if I sound uneducated in the axolotl world. All I have been doing is reading, researching, just everything axolotl before and after I got mines.

My last water change I have used half water (from a cycled tank I've had for a while now, and no issues with) and half tap water with dechlorinator.

Sorry y'all I'm just a very worried parent here..

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No, no, no, it's fine. We are all very glad that you are trying to fix this situation for your axie baby.

I'm guessing that something happened to your bacterial population somehow during the water change (I feel like Capt. Obvious. Sorry...). Something like this happened to me a few years ago and I never figured out what caused my tank to become uncycled. Sometimes when it's not clear what the cause of the problem is, it's best to scrap what you have and start over. Doing a daily water change in a smaller tank should be fine for your axie, but I think the concern we are having now is helping you figure out the fastest and best way to get that tank recycled. What I'd do is keep the water in the tank and patiently wait for it to recycle. By the way, what is the temperature in your tank now?

Oh, and how's your other one acting? Is s/he ok?

Oh, and if you can't afford a test kit right now a lot of pet stores will test your water quality for free. You just need to bring in a sample.

Thank you for understanding! So I'll just do 100% daily water change like 100% tap water and dechlorinator? Do this daily for how long?

Thank you for the explanation of cycling. It does sound more clear to me now and I really need to invest in a test kit. There is a whole kit at Petco that has everything, PH, amonnia, nitrite, and nitrate in one. I'm in Hawaii and the average temp is like 70 for my axies. I have them in an ac room.

The other one seems totally fine and has gotten bigger. They were both same size but now the other is bigger. I will call my pet store to see if they can test the water for me.

robopetz said:

Thank you for understanding! So I'll just do 100% daily water change like 100% tap water and dechlorinator? Do this daily for how long?

Thank you for the explanation of cycling. It does sound more clear to me now and I really need to invest in a test kit. There is a whole kit at Petco that has everything, PH, amonnia, nitrite, and nitrate in one. I'm in Hawaii and the average temp is like 70 for my axies. I have them in an ac room.

The other one seems totally fine and has gotten bigger. They were both same size but now the other is bigger. I will call my pet store to see if they can test the water for me.

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Well, this 100 % daily water change will be with dechlorinated tap water but this daily water change will be for the smaller containers temporarily housing your axolotls. The reason for this change is the volume you'll keep them in for this period of time will be much smaller than the total volume of your tank. To keep the ammonia level down, you'll need to change that water daily. This will have to go on until your tank is completely recycled.

As for your tank, while cycling I wouldn't change that water unless your ammonia, nitrite, and/or nitrate is so high (I'm talking about a reading that falls on the extreme end of the water quality spectrum) that you risk killing off any beneficial bacteria you have grown. When I was cycling my tank by adding ammonia, I would add ammonia till I hit about 1 ppm. I'd check the water every day to make sure the ammonia stayed around 1 ppm and to make sure the other parameters were going up as well. If the levels went above 2 ppm for ammonia, nitrite, and/or nitrate, I'd change enough water to bring them back down to 1 ppm. You'll notice that as your tank gets closer to being cycled that your ammonia and nitrite levels will start dropping much faster. For example, in the final days before I knew my tank was cycled, I would add ammonia to 1 ppm before I went to sleep and 24 hours later my testing kit was unable to detect ammonia and nitrite in my water with some detectable nitrate.

The length of time this will take will depend on 1) the amount of beneficial bacteria you have in the water already, 2) the temperature of said water, 3) how often and severely ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate spike during the cycling process, and 4) how well one adheres to the strict schedule of testing and correcting water quality. It took me two weeks, but I've heard of others taking a month or so to get the tank cycled.

Oh, and whenever you add water to your main tank that will also have to be dechlorinated even while you're cycling. Adding dechlorinated water to a tank that is trying to cycle will dramatically slow the process since chlorine is used to eliminate any microbes that could be living in the water.

If the other is fine, are you sure that you don't have another issue such as a bacterial or fungal infection in your sick axie? It could be a combined problem of water quality and infection that the littler one is more affected by. Do you have any pictures of them?

Anubis said:

Well, this 100 % daily water change will be with dechlorinated tap water but this daily water change will be for the smaller containers temporarily housing your axolotls. The reason for this change is the volume you'll keep them in for this period of time will be much smaller than the total volume of your tank. To keep the ammonia level down, you'll need to change that water daily. This will have to go on until your tank is completely recycled.

As for your tank, while cycling I wouldn't change that water unless your ammonia, nitrite, and/or nitrate is so high (I'm talking about the extreme end of the water quality spectrum) that you risk killing off any beneficial bacteria you have grown. When I was cycling my tank adding ammonia, I would add ammonia till I hit about 1 ppm. I'd check the water every day to make sure the ammonia stayed around 1 ppm and to make sure the other parameters were going up as well. If the levels went above 2 ppm, I'd change enough water to bring them back down to 1 ppm. You'll notice that as your tank gets closer to being cycled that your ammonia and nitrite levels will start dropping much faster. For example, in the final days before I knew my tank was cycled, I would add ammonia to 1 ppm before I went to sleep and 24 hours later my testing kit was unable to detect ammonia and nitrite in my water with some detectable nitrate.

The length of time this will take will depend on 1) the amount of beneficial bacteria you have in the water already, 2) the temperature of said water, 3) how often and severely ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate spike during the cycling process, and 4) how well one adheres to the strict schedule of testing and correcting water quality. It took me two weeks, but I've heard of others taking a month or so to get the tank cycled.

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You are awesome! I will beg the other half the get me that kit lol I called the pet store and they said they don't do that but was nice enough to let me know they sell them there. I will put my sick one in a smaller tank and do 100% water changes daily with dechlorinated tap water. Poor fellow is so week he hardly moves and hasn't ate in about 3 days. Do I just hope for the best for him with the water changes or is there anything else I can do for the mean time?

Anubis said:

Oh, and whenever you add water to your main tank that will also have to be dechlorinated even while you're cycling. Adding dechlorinated water to a tank that is trying to cycle will dramatically slow the process since chlorine is used to eliminate any microbes that could be living in the water.

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Gotcha!

Anubis said:

If the other is fine, are you sure that you don't have another issue such as a bacterial or fungal infection in your sick axie? It could be a combined problem of water quality and infection that the littler one is more affected by. Do you have any pictures of them?

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I don't think he has other issues. He has curled up gills, clear/white slimy things on his body and gills, and just not eating. I can try and snap a photo.