Sick Mudpuppy (Necturus) Help

I have a Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus) that has a white film like substance over his left eye but not on his right. He also has a white patch of skin starting on top of his nose (every other part of his body looks fine). During the day he used to hide under his hiding rock and exhibited normal mudpuppy behavior, but now he has not been inside his rock for several days and remains out in the open in weird positions. He changes positions rather frequently but he does not hide from the light anymore like he used to. We checked his rock to make sure it was clean of any possible irritants and still no improvement. His tank meets all the standards that caudata.org recommends such as size of tank, temperature of water, cleaning of tank, etc. but my mudpuppy is still behaving differently and has that skin disorder on his eye and mouth. He is still eating though so I hope that is good. Should I treat him with a tea bath or a salt bath? How do I know if it's fungal since if it is caudata recommends doing a salt bath? I'd appreciate any ideas/help. This is my first ever mudpuppy. Thanks

It is a shame that no one replied to this. I have a similar problem. I am new to the site and it took a little bit to complete the joining process.
Anyhow, I am fairly certain one of my mudpuppies will die. It had what I now see is a fungus. It kept laying on its back and had what I believe to be rigamortis. I gave it a salt bath and started a new tank for it. I haven't seen it eat in days. I also added an anti-algea tablet to both tanks.
Feeding information mentions crayfish, so I assumed ghost shrimp would be a good addition to the superworms (canned) they were eating. Today, I noticed the shrimp eating away at the gills of the sick mudpuppy before I removed it (I thought it was dead until its abdomen muscles slightly contracted upon removal).
If anyone does read this, I would love some help (as I am sure the initial poster would have). Thank you.

Ok i'll help here.


First of all, sick necturus should be in low temperature waters with fast flowing water. Lot's of hiding places and CLEAN WATER.

Food wise: Keep them active by live food.. Try worms and shrimps. Meaty foods are great for them. The key is to provide different type of foods for them and have a LARGE STRESS FREE tank. A sick necturus is no good!

odinsmommee said:

It is a shame that no one replied to this. I have a similar problem. I am new to the site and it took a little bit to complete the joining process.
Anyhow, I am fairly certain one of my mudpuppies will die. It had what I now see is a fungus. It kept laying on its back and had what I believe to be rigamortis. I gave it a salt bath and started a new tank for it. I haven't seen it eat in days. I also added an anti-algea tablet to both tanks.
Feeding information mentions crayfish, so I assumed ghost shrimp would be a good addition to the superworms (canned) they were eating. Today, I noticed the shrimp eating away at the gills of the sick mudpuppy before I removed it (I thought it was dead until its abdomen muscles slightly contracted upon removal).
If anyone does read this, I would love some help (as I am sure the initial poster would have). Thank you.

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Separate any sick animals from each other! Do not add any CHEMICALS to the water.. I have no idea why you would add anti algea tablets.. That itself stress the necturus.. They hate any type of chemical.. Something is stressing your necturus for them to be this way. Not enough hiding spots, water chemistry, the flow of water, TEMPERATURE, dietary needs, internal parasites, ect just to name a few problems. Keep in mind these are WILD CAUGHT animals and being taking out of the WILD. That itself is very stressful to the poor animal and having no proper conditions can quickly kill it.

Hope this helps.

The information above was very helpful! Thank you! Someone on another thread I came across said for someone else to treat the water for mudpuppies, so I did. But, I have changed out about 50%, thus far. The one left in the original tank appears to be fine, I’m wondering if I should salt bath it anyway? The other was pretty far gone. I was hoping to save it, but it appears to have died. I’ll be burying it later today.

For future reference, although I read instructions, including duration, for salt baths, but I do not recall finding information regarding frequency.

I also wonder if the ghost shrimp caused the stress or infection.

Lastly, I hope I am not exhibiting poor etiquette on this forum by “hijacking” a threador some such thing. I only meant to utilize an already established thread (as was mentioned in the guidelines, enabling better searches). The title “Sick Mudpuppy (Necturus) Help” seemed all-inclusive. Sorry to go off-topic, I merely wanted to establish my respectful intentions.

odinsmommee said:

The information above was very helpful! Thank you! Someone on another thread I came across said for someone else to treat the water for mudpuppies, so I did. But, I have changed out about 50%, thus far. The one left in the original tank appears to be fine, I’m wondering if I should salt bath it anyway? The other was pretty far gone. I was hoping to save it, but it appears to have died. I’ll be burying it later today.

For future reference, although I read instructions, including duration, for salt baths, but I do not recall finding information regarding frequency.

I also wonder if the ghost shrimp caused the stress or infection.

Lastly, I hope I am not exhibiting poor etiquette on this forum by “hijacking” a threador some such thing. I only meant to utilize an already established thread (as was mentioned in the guidelines, enabling better searches). The title “Sick Mudpuppy (Necturus) Help” seemed all-inclusive. Sorry to go off-topic, I merely wanted to establish my respectful intentions.

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First and foremost I suggest getting the BIGGEST tank you can afford. I say 80+ gallon is a good start. A good suggestion is to shop around in Craigslist.. you can even post in the animal section and ask for "fish stuff" like filters, chillers, and other variety of handy items that will greatly help these animals. They will be extremely cheap to get and can even make offers unlike- buying the expensive way through pet shops.

I can not help you with salt baths as I have no experience with such thing. My necturus colony was well kept with a fast flowing water and chillers. I do however, recommend to watch the necturus very closely and see any sort of infections or anything that is "odd". Pictures will surely help me. I say keeping any type of chemical out of a necturus is the best way to go.

The ghost shrimps have nothing to do with stress or infection on the necturus. They are great food staple for them and in fact healthy choice to keep them active hunting like they would otherwise do in their natural habitat. Please check your water chemistry for starters and test the water every other day. You can not have PH shifting likewise if the tank has high ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.. Consider filter system?Is it working properly?What type? Hiding spots? The bottom on the tank is it sand or some kind of gravel? The water must be EXTREMELY CLEAN and have well ESTABLISHED WATER. What I used to do is utilize buckets of water or another tank and use age old water from either source. Not tap water with a few added "chemicals" and just be done.

Remember to avoid chemicals, I wish to stress that very much!

If the necturus are unhappy you can tell right away. Please restart a tank that is established and make sure to ask questions not when they are merely dieing off. It avoids the animals death and stress on the owner.

The forum is to help and I would otherwise not come here if I could not help people in serious situations. The animal health is far important than "hijacking".