Question: Unidentified patch on leg, curled tail, need some help

Hi everyone!

I’m a worried newbie looking for some input. Sorry in advance for the long post, but I really want to give you guys all potentially useful information.

A couple months ago, I aquired two beautiful axolotls: one melanoid and one white albino. They seemed to be in fine shape, albeit a bit skinny. I got them second hand, with their whole tank setup: 120L (30 gallon) tank filled about halfway, very fine sand and an anubias plant, two hides, a few river rocks, no lighting, intank filter.

I had been following care guidelines pretty religiously, doing a 20-30% water change every week, plus a deeper clean and 50% water change every month. Tank temp was always between 15 and 19 degrees Celsius, with no major temp changes (usually +-1 degree over the day/night). GH, KH and pH were all in normal range. Yet I had a persistent problem: while my ammonia and nitrite levels always stayed at 0, my nitrates were between 50 and 100 ppm most of the time! (Went lower sometimes after a water change, but that was rare.)

I couldn’t figure out why this was happening, as I never left uneaten food in and picked up poop whenever I saw it. However I didn’t worry too much (big mistake), as the axolotls seemed completely fine... Until they weren’t.

About a week ago, seemingly overnight, my melanoid developped a type of white-reddish patch/sore on his leg. His skin looked as if it was decaying, and some blood vessels were visible. The tip of his tail was also very curled. Of course, I was pretty panicked and he went straight into the fridge. I watched him in there for 3 days, and his condition didn’t worsen, but didn’t improve either, so I started him on 15 minute salt baths once then twice a day. (I use 2 tsp of uniodised rock salt per litre of dechlorinated water, and keep the salt solution in the fridge so he doesn’t get temp shocked.) I have now been bathing him for 3 days, and it looks very slightly better, the blood vessels are less visible, but there is no marked improvement yet. He also has lighter patches on his other legs but nowhere near as bad. I have attached pictures of how it looks now.

During this time, I seem to have grown some brain cells, and figured out my nitrate problem: TANK FILTERS NEED CLEANING. This was never mentioned to me, nor did I see any talk of it in care sheets, probably because it’s very obvious? In any case I feel very guilty, I can’t believe I didn’t figure this out sooner. The good news is, I cleaned out the filter (being careful not to kill beneficial bacteria), performed 20% water changes every day, and my parameters are now 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and about 25 ppm of nitrates!

I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions to improve my melanoid’s situation. I have been treating him as if he has fungus, but I don’t feel like this looks like the typical white cotton I’ve read about. Can fungus present differently? If not, could this be due to a bacterial infection? Maybe columnaris? I will order some Furan-2/other products stat if that’s the case. It doesn’t look like there’s any systemic infection, as he was acting pretty normal and readily ate all the pellets I offered right before going in the fridge. He has started snapping at my fingers again a couple days ago, so I tried offering food, but he takes it then spits it out. Could this spitting be due to fridging or is it something else? I thought fridging would only cause them to be uninterested in food.

My albino looks pretty much fine (pics attached), he is also in the fridge as I noticed his tail tip was very slightly curled as well, I’m guessing from the stress of the high nitrates. He also ate very well before being fridged, but displays no interest in food whatsoever now. He gets salt baths once a day for 10 minutes as I wanted to prevent whatever infection my melanoid has from taking hold, but I’ll be stopping these soon since he is showing no signs of disease as far as I can tell. Would it seem safe to reintroduce him to the tank in a few days considering the water parameters are fine?

Thanks so much for reading and for any suggestions, any help will be greatly appreciated :happy:

You can add almond leaves to your tank or give your Melanoid a tea bath. It will help heal any wounds he has. For now, I would say don't do anything else to your albino since he seems to be fine except for separating him from your melanoid. Salt baths are normaly given for fungal infections, and it doesn't look like your axie has one, so I would switch from salt baths to tea baths. The tail curling is a sign of stress, and to help with that, keep your axolotl in a dark area with minimal water movement and low temperatures. Don't fridge your axies for now, unless they refuse food for a long period of time.

Hi Isabella,

Thanks for your reply! :happy: I'll be taking my albino out of the fridge and putting him in the basement where it's nice and cool, as well as stopping salt baths.

About the melanoid, I agree that it doesn't look like fungus, but would you happen to have any idea what could be causing these wounds? If it's a bacterial infection, will tea baths help with that? They don't sell almond leaves where I live, but I'll order some if it can help as well.

Is it really a good idea to take him out of the fridge though? I've read that fridging can stop infections from progressing too rapidly, and I wouldn't want it to get worse if I take him out. I'd rather err on the side of caution for now as I'm not sure what this is

Most likely the wounds are from poor water quality. Your axolotl doesn't seem to have any diseases or infections, just some raw areas on his skin, so fridging is not necessary in this case, but if you feel that you need to fridge him, just make sure it's not for more than a few days at a time. If it is a bacterial infection, then you should continue what you have already been doing, salt baths and fridging, but based on the pictures it looked more like skin irritation from bad water quality. The tea baths are just for speeding up and helping in the healing process.

Also, at the bottom of this page is a chart that may help you decipher your axies illness - https://axolotlcity.com/axolotl-illnesses-and-treatment/

I suspect the initial injury will be from his tank mate nipping him. Keep the water clean and cool and you should soon see signs of recovery. Please do keep us posted if there are any further changes.

Dolphinlover55 said:

Most likely the wounds are from poor water quality. Your axolotl doesn't seem to have any diseases or infections, just some raw areas on his skin, so fridging is not necessary in this case, but if you feel that you need to fridge him, just make sure it's not for more than a few days at a time. If it is a bacterial infection, then you should continue what you have already been doing, salt baths and fridging, but based on the pictures it looked more like skin irritation from bad water quality. The tea baths are just for speeding up and helping in the healing process.

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Good to know, I thought wounds like this could be caused by high ammonia/nitrites, but not by nitrates. This does sound less terrible than a bacterial infection. However I am a bit puzzled as he has been in the fridge for 8 days, getting 100% water changes daily, and is showing no signs of improvement... The lesion isn't worse but isn't really getting better either, and his tail is still curled. Would the fridge slow regeneration down a lot? I'll take him out if that's the case. On the bright side, he's still very interested in food, and kept a pellet down today! So it does seem like you might be right about him having no diseases/infections, as from what I've read he'd have lost his appetite if that were the case.

I will go get some tea today and try it tonight. I've read that 1 bag of unflavored pure black tea per 10L of water is a good dosage, is that correct? Should I just bathe him for 10-15 minutes like salt baths, or should I add some tea to his tub and leave it in there?

Thank you for the chart as well. The only thing that seems slightly similar to his condition is the red patch mentioned in bacterial infections, as his does look pretty reddish, but as you said it could simply be a wound from poor water quality. I guess I shall have to wait and see if tea baths work. I do hope everything works out as I feel terrible, and would hate to lose him due to my own easily preventable mistake

bellabelloo said:

I suspect the initial injury will be from his tank mate nipping him. Keep the water clean and cool and you should soon see signs of recovery. Please do keep us posted if there are any further changes.

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That might also be a possibility! What worries me is that he has been in the fridge for 8 days now, getting 100% daily water changes, and has shown no real signs of improvement, everything still looks the same. Would this be normal and due to the fridge slowing down the regeneration process, or does it mean it's something else? I will be sure to keep you posted if I notice anything different.

To me it looks like a nip from your other axie. The water quality would be preventing him from healing properly, rather than causing the injury. I have one who lost an arm and it looked like this until it started healing over. From memory it was a little while before I saw a lot of improvement, then it would get better and better every day.
I would just keep him in cool clean water. You don't need to fridge, maybe that's stalling healing like you said. Keep temps under 17 degrees and see how he goes. You can keep using the container you've been keeping him in so you can do daily water changes and monitor progress.

Something else worth mentioning:

I went to my local pet store and showed them his pictures. They called their colleague a few towns over who they said had a bit of experience with axolotls, and he said that from the description it sounds like a bacterial infection. He recommended an antibiotic that is used in my country for fish with aeromonas, pseudomonas, and columnaris infections, called Baktopur Sera Direct. The active ingredient is nifurpirinol, and he said to start with only a bit and eventually dilute it to 50% of the usual concentration.

I have read only one report of nifurpirinol being used on an axolotl, so I'm not too sure about trying it. What do you guys think? In any case I will only use it if and ONLY if the situation gets desperate, if he stops eating and after having tried tea baths and everything else.

Hayleyy said:

To me it looks like a nip from your other axie. The water quality would be preventing him from healing properly, rather than causing the injury. I have one who lost an arm and it looked like this until it started healing over. From memory it was a little while before I saw a lot of improvement, then it would get better and better every day.
I would just keep him in cool clean water. You don't need to fridge, maybe that's stalling healing like you said. Keep temps under 17 degrees and see how he goes. You can keep using the container you've been keeping him in so you can do daily water changes and monitor progress.

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Oh, well that's good to hear! I'll take him out and put him in the basement then, and see how things go. Thanks :happy:

Keep us updated!

Hi, so he's been out of the fridge for 4 days now, and it does seem like his wound is getting a bit whiter which seems like a good sign! It is at least definitely not getting worse. His tail is still pretty curled though, I'm not sure how long this should take to go away.

He's in the basement where his water temp stays at 13.9 degrees day and night. He seems pretty active and is eating VERY well, in fact it looks like I've turned him into a little beggar: every time I take the lid off his tub, he comes right to the top, and sometimes starts snapping before I even give him anything! The term "water dog" suits him well haha

Great news! It is starting to heal then. Test the water regularly to make sure levels are optimal and keep it nice and cool. Ever since Bucky's arm started to heal he became more attentive to me too, and every time I am near the tank he swims to the front like "food?? food??" I take this as a "I love you thank you for making me better" haha