Illness/Sickness: Help please, very worried

Hi everyone,

My new axolotl that i have had for about 2 months i think is in trouble. i have been feeding him mealworms and have only just recently found out that this is bad and am purchasing some earthworms for him tomorrow. Over the past few days he has been floating with his tail up and usually this would mean he is constipated or at least needs to poop, but this time he is pooping well but his tail hasn't come down and in fact it has gotten worse. he has trouble staying down and he has been swimming fiercely to keep his front legs on the ground and i feel he is getting rather tired now because he is simply sitting in the corner nose at the ground and he occasionally rolls onto his side and has to correct himself. His skin has also developed a bubbly like texture and the end of his tail is fraying slightly.

He is in a smaller temporary tank while my larger tank cycles. There is no substrate in his tank, and i do a 30% a week water change. the temperature is towards the high scale at about 19 degrees Celsius and it stays pretty constant. Last week i noticed there were tiny little white things chugging around the tank - they move like daphnia but are miniscule and are on the walls of the tank. I did an extra water change this week. i have also noticed that previously the tank smelled a little like soil.

I don't have a water test kit, but i am going down to the pet store to get it checked tomorrow.

I'm very worried and i think i should fridge him, but i have no idea if that will help or what the problem is or how to fix it.

thanks
~ Willow.

You need to invest in your own liquid testing kit. Regular testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate is so important in keeping aquatic life. API Freshwater master Kit is recommended. You will also need this to know how your tank is cycling.

The skin condition sounds like a water quality issue could be the cause. For now I would put him in a clean tub of fresh dechlorinated water and change it 100% daily. To assist further, it would be good to see the actual water parameters including ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and PH.

Agreed. get a test kit. And if you can't pick one up, when you go to the pet store to get it tested, ask for the exact readings in ppm; ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Then just taking it and saying 'it's fine' is not enough.

30% changes weekly are not enough in an un-cycled tank; ammonia builds up daily. I agree with the advice to move him to a tub with clean, dechlorianted water and change it DAILY.

Can you post a picture?

Try keeping the water level down in the temporary tub, keep it so it just covers his back so he won't get stressed with floating

update:

so the petstore was closed today so i will have to go in tomorrow to get the water levels checked.
i am moving him to a clean tub today, and am i not putting him in the fridge? just a tub with daily water changes? and how much, 100%?

last night he passed what i think is a bunch of mealworm heads and he has stopped floating and is looking a lot less stressed. After reading up on mealworms and some threads on here, i feel aweful having been feeding him them for all this time not knowing how nasty they are on his insides :/ but he ate a nice juicy earthworm today and seemed very happy with it.

thanks so much for your help so far, hopefully with the tubbing and the water checking he'll be on the mend

I would not fridge him personally. I don't think fridging in this case would be necessary. Just in a cool tub of clean dechlorinated water. Yes - change 100% daily.

Earthworms are a much better diet and I am glad you have made the switch and he has taken to it well. Start up an earthworm farm and you will have a good supply for very cheap

I would still advise on investing in your own kit. You need to able to check regularly and to ensure there are no water quality issues. While your tanks are not cycled or in the process of cycling, you need to be testing every day and doing water changes to bring the chemical levels down to a safe level. Having your own kit will allow you to ensure that his tank is in fact cycling and that you are not exposing your axolotl to high amounts of ammonia or nitrite etc that could easily harm your axolotl. I can't imagine going to the pet store every day...

ok, thank you

what size tub should i use? he is about 15 cm. sorry about all the questions, i just want to make sure i'm doing the best that i can to help him

purchased a master tester freshwater kit via ebay today - should be a couple of days and it will arrive.

Fantastic Make sure you follow the instructions in the kit to ensure accurate readings .

Any tub will do as long as he has some space to move about in. It is good if you can also fit a hide in the tub as well You can get storage tubs you could use cheap at most supermarkets. I would opt for one of these myself. Once we know what the water parameters are we can determine better what is happening with the skin. You may find a tea bath or indian almond leaves might help soothe his skin.

ok, well he has been in the tub for several days and the skin problem has completely disappeared. my big tank has just finished cycling with ammonia of 0, nitrite 0 and pH 7.6. That was before i put him in. levels are still good, and he has been in there for about a day and a half, but he has started floating with his back legs again. i have been feeding him just earthworms, and he has developed two small bulges just up from his back legs. he has also become somewhat transparent on one side showing a large dark area on his side. Should he be fridged? what is the likely cause of this, could it still be mealworms in his system?

he has also just regurgitated the two worms i gave him before.

There is no need to fridge your axie.

If you have been feeding him mealworms it can take a few weeks for the chitin to pass. If you are now feeding him earthworms it should help, but the floaty bum should pass in time.

If you can post a photo of his 'bulge' it would help - it's probably just the constipation, but it could be a prolapse.

I'm assuming your axie is leucistic or albino if you can see a dark patch on his side? It's his liver, and it's normal to be able to see it on a pale axie.

Thank you so much for your help. You were right, he has gone all happy and back to normal now and most of the chitin has passed. The bulge was just due to the difficulty he had passing the mealworms and that he hadn't pooped for a while. But he did, and now things are swell
He is a golden albino and i was just freaking out over nothing because i checked some axolotl anatomy sheets and it is indeed simply his liver.
thanks again for the help everyone, just so glad he is happy and healthy and loving life again

Glad to hear he has recovered that is excellent news

The "skin bubbles" you describe sound very similar to what happened to my axies when their nitrite level got too high. Mine also went away with nice clean water.

Ok well there's some bad news. I went away recently for a weekend and my grandparents were looking after the house. I fed them (I got my golden a little friend - slightly underfed at the petstore, but she has plumped up since then) on the saturday morning, and was going to on the sunday night I got back so the grandparents didnt have to worry about feeding them. I just asked them to scoop out the poop if there was any. Well i got home last Sunday and apparently there had been a blackout all day so the filters were off and so was the air pump, and there was poop everywhere! so i cleaned them all up and it was fine, but i think my biofilter has completely crashed. it was doing really well before that weekend and the 'lotls were so happy, but my ammonia and nitrites are through the roof (ammonia 1.5, nitrate.50)and the nitrate is at 0. iv been doing 50% water changes all week, but it hasn't been doing much to the levels and i think its starting to affect them. They are switching between three behaviours: floating near the filter outlet, or just anywhere at the top, swimming on the bottom against the current, or wedged vertically between the plastic plants and the glass. they are still eating fine but im getting really worried. Is there any way i can reduce these parameters, get my biofilter up and running quicker, or do something to stop my little guys from getting any more stressed.
thanks guys

A couple of options, one option would be to move the axolotls into a tub of clean dechlorinated water and do 100% water changes daily on the tub. Then you can focus on doing a fishless cycle on the main tank until it is fully cycled again and then return the axolotls to the tank.

Or, you could keep doing daily water changes but you may need to do more than 50% if that is not enough to bring the ammonia and nitrite down to a safe level.

If you notice any damage to their skin maybe some Indian almond leaves or a tea bath may help.

Others may have some further advice that would help out.

With the drastic behavioral changes that is making me so concerned, would it still be an acceptable idea to keep them in the tank and change 60-70% of the water? This morning i woke up to sideways floating.

If tubbing is then the only option, would i need to separate them into two tubs? and will temperature maintenance then become an issue? not that it can't be managed, just so i have a heads up for frozen water bottles etc.

Personally I would probably move the axolotl to a tub until the tank is fully cycled but as long as you are diligent in water changes and keeping the ammonia and nitrite in safe levels you could keep the axolotl in the main tank.

Temperature control could be an issue. If you do find the tub is a bit on the warm side you can place the tub in the coolest part of the house and make use of fans and maybe insulating the tub somehow (I have a car windscreen cover around the back of my tank (on the outside) to help insulate the tank a little and keep it cooler.

So even though i was doing 75% water changes the nitrite levels are alarmingly high and the axolotls are getting way too stressed with constant floating/swimming and now my golden albino's legs are red and aggravated. I am definately tubbing them. i'm just wondering what the smallest size of those plastic tubs is suitable (temporarily) for two 12cm axolotls? Because i have two 13L plastic tubs around the house but they just seem awfully small :/

A good move to transfer them to a tub. To soothe their skin you could try a tea bath or Indian almond leaves.

You should be able to find a larger tub (I believe there are ones about 25 litres) or you could get a second and keep them separately. Make sure you do 100% water changes with dechlorinated water daily.