Axolotl Fungus Help?

I have a young axolotl in a 20 gallon with a possible fungus. Yesterday his gills were fine and now he has a small white cotton ballish clump on one gill and I am very concerned please help.

Hi there! The best treatment for fungus is a salt bath. Please make sure that the salt you use is a non-iodized salt, it's very important! Use another tank and add salt to it, then put your sick axolotl in it. Change the water each day and add salt after water changed. Fungus disappears after 24-48h if it is treated on time (it took 3 days in my case). I think there's a tutorial on how to do a salt bath somewhere... Good luck :happy:

MuGuiKeu said:

Hi there! The best treatment for fungus is a salt bath. Please make sure that the salt you use is a non-iodized salt, it's very important! Use another tank and add salt to it, then put your sick axolotl in it. Change the water each day and add salt after water changed. Fungus disappears after 24-48h if it is treated on time (it took 3 days in my case). I think there's a tutorial on how to do a salt bath somewhere... Good luck :happy:

Click to expand...

Is there something it could be besides a fungus. I would hate to put him through the stress of a salt bath if it wasnt necessary

It is a fungus The salt bath is the only solution. Their skin has no scales, so you can not use fish treatment.

Change the water every day, twice a day if you can. Try to keep the water temperature as low as possible. After 24-48h, the fungus should be gone. As it can spread in your main aquarium, keep your axolotl in another separate tank for at least 1 week after the fungus is gone to be certain

Also, if I remember correctly, the fungus can appear as a result of an injury (such as a bite by another axolotl) or because of the too high temperature of the water. The ideal temperature is 18 degrees, but it should NOT exceed 24, otherwise there is a risk of illness such as fungus and the axolotl will be very stressed.

When I did a salt bath to my axolotl, he did not seem stressed and he ate properly. In any case, the salt bath is your only option. A neat fungus quickly can disappear very easily! And remember to use non iodized salt for aquarium

Here's a photi of my baby when is has a fungus (I rescued him like this from a petshop known for bad treatments). Now he's the happiest axolotl

Maybe it is a piece of faeces that has stuck in the gill. That will rot and make the gill sick.
If this is the problem, the best thing you can do is pull it out with tweezers. It may happen that you take a small piece of gill off with it, but that will grow back again. Good filtering can prevent this type of problem. Check the sand bottom for floating pieces of faeces.
Good luck .