Peeling, shabby gills, not happy, worms, not eating, sad

Pookie isn't lookin well....
heres a pick of her. Before and after.


note the peeling skin and curling gills (the tips of the red gill thingies (forgot what they're called- the little red strings...u know?) started to curl, or singe....its weird. Its like a bulb at the end sort of...adn its shortened a lot in parts...
Anyways there are "Harmless" worm things (planaria or something) and since they have appeared i've noticed these symptoms.
The tail is curled...i have pushed the spray bar out of the water so that the impact will dissapate the water and dull the current.
these are my readings, all nice and healthy!!

ammonia=0
nitrite=0....or is it nitrate??? the most toxic one...lol
pH=6.8
these all seem good.....apparently the peeling is normal...i'm ok with that...but she's not eating, she is thinning and is not her usual self. Her eyes sink in when i drop food on her head.
im very saddened....
here's a pic of her being cute.

plz, can someone give me advice of what to do...she looks so pathetic and dismal with skin falling off her all the time. :< it makes me sad!!!
she seems to be getting worse ever since she stopped eating. she wont respond to my efforts of trying to give her food....nothing has changed....i put stress coat in the water.
she's not completely gone as she has enough omph to burst up to the top for a gulp of air occasionally, and still moves around the tank.....but there are so many poos, and she's not eating as much as what is comming out!!!
plz help.
Her tank is due for a cleaning tommorow ( i only cleaned it 4 days ago. )
help....... :<
i'm going out of my mind with sympathy and worry!!
i don't want her to die!!

Axies do shed their skin but mine do keep eating :S

How far apart are those photos taken? The second one looks like she is round in the belly, if the photos were close together in time maybe she could have an infection or something? I am having simular problems at the moment with things on the glass, looks like limpets or something and i was told that the only way to get rid of things on the glass is a strong salt solution. So all 3 of my axies will be in buckets while their tanks are filled with salt. Is there anyway that maybe you could try this? I took a sample of the 'bugs' to the LFS and they looked at them under the microscope for me. They said that what i have in my tank can crawl over the axies at night, maybe your worm things are doing this too.

I also had worm things in my tank just before i put my axie in after it had cycled. They were tiny and stuck to the glass and it was like their head was the only part that came off the glass and moved, does this sound like what you have? The way that i got rid of that was to add a few goldfish to the water to eat them. Obviously the axie wasnt in the tank at the time. I found this very effective and havnt had them since. It only took a few days for them to eat them all. Maybe you could try this and keep your axie out of the tank for a while. You could try doing salt baths while she is out of the tank (keep her in a separate container). The salt baths would probably kill any of the worms that are on her (if there are some). Plus you can monitor to see if the worms are coming from your axies poo or something. Hope this helps a little

Emily, axolotls are more active at night, so if the organisms are going to crawl on your axolotls, it would be during the day when they're resting.

Frankly, all tanks have crawly things in them. It's more harmful to your tank to try and kill them than it is to let them live. Now you'll have to recycle your tank, wash and rinse everything to get rid of the salt, and it's no guarantee that they won't come back.

Teesha, you may need a better test kit. They do have a shelf-life, and can give inaccurate readings. Your axolotl looks fine, other than a little shedding skin. If your axolotl is stressed, it will show signs of illness. This probably is not caused by microorganisms in your tank. It's most likely water quality and flow, not to mention the gravel that you have, which is not an appropriate size for axolotl tanks.

(Message edited by Joan on July 07, 2006)

these are only new test kits, i got them 3 months ago...theyre still good. My tank is very healthy, i keep it in good condition doing water changes once a week. I did introduce a rock from my pond, but i am 90% sure there are no fish in it. ( i had put 4 fish in it months ago, and they hide or they're eaten by birds...) i notices some smaller species of daphnia made it in the tank from this rock...it is possiblet he worms did too. they aren't comming from her poo and i have seen them land on her but ive comet ot he conclusion that the shedding is normal...
these worms ( i looked them up) were planaria or another thing, i think it was glass worms.... they are too tiny for goldfish to see i'm sure...i might get a white cloud.....

i only have gravel on half of my tank....i'm introducing the sand slowly so as not to recycle my tank. if u see in hte pic of her "being cute" there is the sanded side.
the pics are about 3 months apart...
some of her red parts to the gills are falling off, but at these parts is white shedded skin, so i think its a part of the shedding process. She ate a little today, her appitite is much less than the usual, but she's eating a bit, and i've noticed she's not all that bad. I picked up more of her poopies today...
i think after she sheds (how long does this take?) she will be better....i'll just keep up the water changes....every week there are new eggs layed by the worms so i have to scrubb the glass down and the rocks...i think i'll leave the tank bare apart from the substrate to limit where they can lay and change water more often to dwindle the numbers a bit.
we'll see how it goes.

You may have got them three months ago, but how long did they sit on the shelf? The only tests I've found that are consistantly accurate are the dry-tab kits, which are the most expensive.

Planaria are large, and easily recognisable. Glass worms are gnat larvae. Don't add fish. It won't help the situation.

If you're scrubbing down the glass and the rocks, your tank is probably going through mini-cycles. I'd bet money that you've got ammonia in your tank and it's causing ammonia burns. Take a water sample to a reputable fish shop and have them test it for you. Most will do this for free.

I'm sorry Joan, i was just going on my personal experience when i said to add goldfish to eat the worms. This worked for me, and I thought it may be helpful for other people.

On the other hand I agree with Joan that you should get your water tested by a LFS and then you can compare with your test kit results.

i think they are correct...i dunno how old they are then. Coz i changed 90% of water the other day? So it must be.... I've only scrubbed down the few big pebbles i have in my tank, the log, and the glass....is that really enough to cause a mini cycle? When i first got my axy the ammonia once read 1. So it does sort of say it right. I used to change the water every 2nd day so does that mean it was wrong then???
I'll try my best to get some water tested at a pet shop! Proabably tommorow or nxt weekend, im very busy atm.
I changed mroe water today, i'm upping the frquency of my water changes for about a fortnight. (doing more than usual)
What symptoms will my axie have if it is high ammonia??? The skin shedding???
thanx for ur help!

Yes, that will cause a mini-cycle. Your cycling bacteria live on the surfaces in the tank: on the glass, the decorations, the rocks. They're not free-floating in the water.

You should change about 20% of the water once a week. There's usually no need to change more than that.

High ammonia levels usually result in red skin, shedding skin, bleeding and discolored gills, or other general signs of illness.

Emily, the ones you describe sound a lot like hydra.

But I can't stress enough how NORMAL it is to have microorganisms in well-established tanks. You should not try to get rid of them all. It usually does more harm than good.

(Message edited by Joan on July 08, 2006)

i really think, aesthetically and on the human point of view, worms look "wrong and nasty"....like it makes it look really infested and sickening...imo.
i dont like the look of a full on infested tank, a few i can handle, but its really bad....
my tank leaked :<
So now i have put her in my other smaller tank- so definate cycling is going to occur, while my dad re-silicones and cures the tank i will try help my little cherrub and once the tanks ready i will repost a pretty picture of a newly redone tank (i'm gunna redecorate).
she's slightly stressed from the move- but what can i do!?

if those pics arent a few months apart then i would think shes been eating yummy gravel, otherwise it could just be shes ripened with eggs.

the eyes going in thing is normal, if you watch axies when theyre actually eating their eyes go in and out as they swallow, i think its sort of a reflex thing like blinking.

sorry if ive posted something already mentioned, i just skim read