Hello,
My axolotl, Chimi, isn't doing so well. He has a 20 gallon tank with a sand bottom and plenty of hiding holes and fake plants. Water temperature has been hard to maintain since I live in Arizona, but I've got an aquarium fan going that helps to chill the water. About a month ago, I moved houses and had to completely drain his tank in order to move it. Since then, I've had problems with this weird, whitish mucus in his tank.
It started out growing on one of the fake plants, and I paid it no attention until it spread to all of the other plants. I took them out to wash them, and the white stuff drifted off and got all over the tank, resulting in me having to do another complete water change to get all of it out. The only thing I found wrong with the water parameters at that time was that the ammonia was slightly high, but nothing drastic. I would take a picture of the white stuff, but it's very fine and doesn't show up in my camera very well. It's almost like hair- kind of stringy, and translucent white. I found an image on Google that looks like what I have going on, so I've attached that picture in hopes it can be identified (although what's happening in my tank is not as severe as what is happening in the picture).
Chimi didn't seem to be bothered by it at first, even though it turned his tank super cloudy. After I did the water change and added some algaefix, the tank was fine and crystal clear. Now, it's been about a week and the stuff is BACK. The tank isn't as cloudy as it was before, and the water parameters are all normal. But Chimi (a white axolotl) is turning kind of red. His tail veins seem very prominent and his gills are so dark red, they are almost purple (they however are not curved forwards). Is this some sort of fungus that I need to buy special treatment for? Should I try to get a closer look at his gills to see if they're alright? What should I do in terms of a water change (change the water, filter, etc)? Please help, I'm very stressed about him and I want him to be healthy.
My axolotl, Chimi, isn't doing so well. He has a 20 gallon tank with a sand bottom and plenty of hiding holes and fake plants. Water temperature has been hard to maintain since I live in Arizona, but I've got an aquarium fan going that helps to chill the water. About a month ago, I moved houses and had to completely drain his tank in order to move it. Since then, I've had problems with this weird, whitish mucus in his tank.
It started out growing on one of the fake plants, and I paid it no attention until it spread to all of the other plants. I took them out to wash them, and the white stuff drifted off and got all over the tank, resulting in me having to do another complete water change to get all of it out. The only thing I found wrong with the water parameters at that time was that the ammonia was slightly high, but nothing drastic. I would take a picture of the white stuff, but it's very fine and doesn't show up in my camera very well. It's almost like hair- kind of stringy, and translucent white. I found an image on Google that looks like what I have going on, so I've attached that picture in hopes it can be identified (although what's happening in my tank is not as severe as what is happening in the picture).
Chimi didn't seem to be bothered by it at first, even though it turned his tank super cloudy. After I did the water change and added some algaefix, the tank was fine and crystal clear. Now, it's been about a week and the stuff is BACK. The tank isn't as cloudy as it was before, and the water parameters are all normal. But Chimi (a white axolotl) is turning kind of red. His tail veins seem very prominent and his gills are so dark red, they are almost purple (they however are not curved forwards). Is this some sort of fungus that I need to buy special treatment for? Should I try to get a closer look at his gills to see if they're alright? What should I do in terms of a water change (change the water, filter, etc)? Please help, I'm very stressed about him and I want him to be healthy.