Floating...

oh, sorry lol. i just woulda thought they did cos of so many ppl having them therefore quite a lot must get ill at sum point in their life.

but actually now i think bout it the vet is from newzealand not australia.

also with the whole vet thing...round the corner from where i used to live is a blue cross vet thing they may do axolotls its in Pimlico. well more towards Victoria. so itd be free as well.

I'm completely new to axolotls, but I have kept other amphibs and fish my whole life, so hopefully this isn't all way off track...

0.6ppm ammonia is BAD and deadly. What test kit are you using? A reading between 0 and 0.6ppm is hugely inaccurate, is there another test you can use?

How often are you doing water changes, and what are your water parameters normally? (pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate...) You've only had these guys 5 months (or less- I'm just going by Spunky's age)- was the tank cycled before you added them, or was it a fresh setup? If the system was already established and you're doing regular maintenance your ammonia levels should easily stay at 0. If it wasn't cycled, and you're doing regular water changes, cycling the tank takes longer and having the axis constantly exposed to fluctuating levels of toxins would slowly weaken the animal's immune system... feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm mainly experienced with fish. Either way, ammonia should be 0. The fact that you have traces of both ammonia and nitrite in your system is a big red flag to me- can you tell me EXACTLY what your tank maintenance schedule is, how much water you change, etc.?

The other problem I see is temperature... what is the temperature normally? You mentioned 25 as a high, but didn't say how much higher than normal that was. All the research I've done says 60-68 F or 15-20 degrees celsius as the acceptable range. Ammonia toxicity increases as the temperature and pH increase. Oxygen levels are also lower in warmer water. I don't know your pH, but the warm water/low oxygen combined with the poor water quality could be what's causing, or at least contributing to Spunky's condition.

... Just reading about bloat in newts and salamanders now, and everything I've read says that heat stress and icky water can cause kidney failure, which shows itself as bloat. Bloating could also be a symptom of some kind of systematic infection... If Jynx isn't showing any of the symptoms, it seems like kidney damage would be the culprit rather than a abcterial infection. Here are two of the sites I was reading :

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/bloatEDK.shtml

http://www.livingunderworld.org/amphibianArticles/article0001.htm

Some others said treating for secondary infections with an antibiotic might help, if the tissue damage wasn't too advanced, but overall the prognosis wasn't encouraging Putting them in the fridge also seems to help them recover on their own- does anyone know exactly what it is about being cooled that helps so much?

Has Jynx shown any of the same symptoms? If it were me, I'd be really aggressive with tank maintenance and keeping the water temperature down. Even if it is too late for Spunky, it could keep the same from happening to Jynx!

I really hope he can recover from this, it's so hard seeing them suffer!

I've recently had an ammonia problem in my tank , probably due to the fact that one of my females laid eggs all over the place and they stayed there for 4-5 days until i removed them.

Anyway, I immediately did a 50% water change and did a complete clean-up of the tank and now ammonia levels are back to near-zero

Jenny, When i dont have a car etc its very hard to do anything.

And i cant believe you even thought i would let Spunky suffer im am most upset you would even think of that.

Cheers Leighton for the info i manange by pure luck to fine this guy.

I took him to Northampton today and the vet did a few test and an x-ray. Spunky has nothing in him.

He has said that Spunky has an infection which he thinks was brought on by his gills being nipped, and from his adivse hes more than sure there was nothing i could have done about it.

I now have some antibiotic's for him to soak him in for half hour once a day.

Im not being unfair jenny and im doin everything i can. When you cant find a vet it isnt my fault. But with a very hard search as you can tell i found one.

Thank Leah for the info. I went to my local petshop for a water test and they have said it is fine. The tank was set up for 2 weeks before i got them both and i do a 20-30% water change every other week.

Jynx has not shown any symptoms and is very happy in the tank. Temps are down as well. And the gravel is now out of the tank.

Hi Kim,

That's good news about Spunky. I hope he pulls through. Did you find anything out about the dangling matter from his cloaca - was it faecal, tissue or something else (e.g. microbial mat)?

Good luck, the pair of you

Awesome news about Spunky!

Careful with pet shops though, their test kits may be out of date and you never know what kind of training the staff has had- always best to run your own diagnostics and use the pet shops as a back up/confimation if you're in doubt. Everyone's got an opinion on what "fine" water quality is and unfortunately, pet stores aren't the most reliable places, in my experience.

Glad to hear you've figured out what's happening, it must be a relief!

Leighton,

i really dont know what it was it was like some kind of mucas.

The vet has also given me some Liquid paraffin... (not the petrol type) to give by mouth if i can just to push anything in his guts though.

Any way i'll keep you all posted.

(Message edited by jigglypuff on August 06, 2004)

Leah,

Yeah its a great relief! The pet shop i go to is more of a pet shop. im good friends with them and they test there own water with what they tested mine with.

Just catching up. Glad to hear about Spunky Kim. Perhaps you could post the vets details in the Testemonials section, for others benefit.

Kim would you like to keep us updated on Spunk's recovery in a new thread this ones quite long, some 70 posts, and it takes a while to load on slower internet connections? TIA.

Leah, welcome to the forum. Canookie in Oz is there a story there?

can you post your tanks stats? ph, ammonia, temperature? how often and what are you feeding? how often do you do water changes? any other odd behaviour other than the shrinking tail?

For a start beef heart every day is not a good diet for an axie. Axies can not digest mammal proteins that well. Get some variety going in the diet, start with worms, meal worms, maggots, pellets etc.

Secondly take a small tub of water down to an aquarium pet shop and they'll usually test for free.

No, it hasn't. I've got a tube to decrease the flow. I'll get pics of the axy and the filter set up right now.

I put it in a seperate tank and chilled the water. The water is still, so we'll see how it goes.

Hi for anyone reading last few messages. I have moved them to a new thread for sake of those with slower connections: Please continue to post in floating Part 2