Help! Her gills are shedding?!

My step daughter brought home an axolotl last year at the end of school. We have had a hard time this summer keeping the tank temp under 70, last week it made it to 84 without anyone noticing. As soon as it was brought to my attention I started the fridge bath procedure, she has been in there since Tuesday, June 19th. How long can she live in the fridge? I am doing a 100% daily water change with fridged water and I am now starting to wonder if i need to salt bath, I have attached some pictures. Any input would be so appreciated. I want to get her back in the tank, we are relocating it to a cooler part of the house and I am having some success with two fans on it at all times. It's a 20 gallon long, I don't use artificial light.

laelda said:

My step daughter brought home an axolotl last year at the end of school. We have had a hard time this summer keeping the tank temp under 70, last week it made it to 84 without anyone noticing. As soon as it was brought to my attention I started the fridge bath procedure, she has been in there since Tuesday, June 19th. How long can she live in the fridge? I am doing a 100% daily water change with fridged water and I am now starting to wonder if i need to salt bath, I have attached some pictures. Any input would be so appreciated. I want to get her back in the tank, we are relocating it to a cooler part of the house and I am having some success with two fans on it at all times. It's a 20 gallon long, I don't use artificial light.

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That axolotl looks really skinny. Are you sure it isn't dead (serious, as sometimes they are hard to know).

She can stay in the fridge for a long time, keep her water around 10 degrees if possible so it's nice and cold but not too cold.
If you don't have one I'd suggest getting a chiller. It's worth it in the long run and if you have it running she can stay in her tank in cool water.
What were the water parameters in the tank: ammonia, nitrate and nitrite? For her to heal you want 0 ammonia and nitrites and little amounts of nitrates.
Is she eating? And what does she eat?
Axolotls usually bloat once they die so I don't think it is.

She is definitely not dead. She was fed daily before I placed her in the fridge, she ate one earthworm the day I put her in and I still offer her worms once a day but she is not interested. She typically eats 1 or 2 earthworms every other day and maybe three days a week bloodworm frozen cubes. She likes brine shrimp cubes too but they are so messy I quit treating her with those. I don’t know how to check the levels of ammonia and nitrate/nitrite, I need to read more into that. I am looking at a chiller for around $150 I think I’m going to splurge on it for her. The fridge temp is right around 10, she is very active but the long pretty gills are falling off and there is like a film around the ones that remain

laelda said:

She is definitely not dead. She was fed daily before I placed her in the fridge, she ate one earthworm the day I put her in and I still offer her worms once a day but she is not interested. She typically eats 1 or 2 earthworms every other day and maybe three days a week bloodworm frozen cubes. She likes brine shrimp cubes too but they are so messy I quit treating her with those. I don’t know how to check the levels of ammonia and nitrate/nitrite, I need to read more into that. I am looking at a chiller for around $150 I think I’m going to splurge on it for her. The fridge temp is right around 10, she is very active but the long pretty gills are falling off and there is like a film around the ones that remain

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You can get kits to test your water parameters. The ones I use have a little test tube and depending on the kit a variable number of bottles of stuff you use to test the water. Any decent fish store or pet store that sells aquatic pets should have them. grab those and you'll have a much much better idea of water quality, and if you know that you'll either know how best to help her or you'll have enough information to get the good folks here to tell you how best to help her.



with regard to her appetite....being cold slows their metabolism down, so being in the fridge may be causing that loss of appetite. Which isn't me saying don't fridge her, there are others on here who know way way more than me about treating sick axies, trust their advice, I'm relatively new to axies, but there are some things that I know from having fish and newts in times past that are transferable.

OH, and with regard to the test kits....1) clean your test tubes. i once got an ammonia reading from a bottle of spring water I picked up at the circle k in a test tube I hadn't cleaned. I just put in water, give it a good shake, drain and repeat a few times. 2) If you're getting readings that seem just crazy, test some water that isn't from the tank but is treated with whatever treatment you're using, my dechlorinator reacts with my ammonia test. This occurs to me now because I just tested my big tank which i got two weeks ago and was having a spike for a while, so frequent water changes and daily tests and that, but with that I needed to be cognizant of the fact that my treatment would be reacting a little bit and behaving accordingly.

The most popular test kit I see people use is the API master kit; it has pH, high pH, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Make sure to get a liquid test kit as they are more accurate than the strips.
As tundrabadger said appetite will reduce when fridging so that is probably the reason. They can go surprisingly long without food/little food while fridging so don't stress too much about that.
Until you get the tests keep her in a small container and change the water daily with dechlorinated water, this will ensure there isn't any damaging ammonia in there.