Shedding? Sick?

E

elizabeth

Guest
Hi everyone! I'm new to the site and to these darling lil axolotls. Um i've had Mitch probably for about 3 months which puts him at about 4 or 5 months old. He's a big boy, big appetite, and was very very active, my pet shop thought he was almost a little bizzarely active for the species, but now he seems to have calmed down, he used to love to go and hunt down his feeder fish now he doesn't even pay attention to them, let along eat them, he's not very active anymore, just is always dead asleep. He's also developed a bit of the like dry skin looking..ah stuff, on his body and head that seems to be flaking off like a new layer of skin, is he sick or shedding? I took him to where i got him when i became concerned about a whitish colour around his gills, they felt it was a natural colouring to start developing for the black ones. What i'm mostly worried about is this white shedding, flaky stuff on his body. He still seems happy, he eats his frozen food like there's no tomorrow, i don't think he's becoming sluggish just maybe settling down a bit as he gets older. Can anyone help me with this skin? Is it normal for black axolotls? It's been getting worse over the last week, but it so even all over his body there's not so much patches, just his whole body is flaking.
 
They can shed their skin. If he's still eating, and hasn't changed in any other way, I wouldn't worry too much. They're also more active as youngsters. He'll settle down.

If you could post a pic, that would be good. Pictures are much easier to diagnose than descriptions in most cases.
 
yep my axie is going through the same thing now as you were, im very concerend aswell, ive read that the skin starts flaking if the waters toxic but ive checked everything and its all normal. its a mystery so im just going to monitor it for now.
 
White stuff on the skin sounds more like a fungus than shedding.. it would really help if you could post a photo so we could get an idea of what it looked like.
Have you done tests for ammonia, nitrate/nitrite in your tank?
 
I don't know that you'll get a response to your request ...the original post is rather old.;)

When I brought my axolotl home, one did seem to have shed some skin. As there was no further problems I put it down to the stresses of moving home.
 
Last edited:
elizabeth said:
Hi everyone! I'm new to the site and to these darling lil axolotls. Um i've had Mitch probably for about 3 months which puts him at about 4 or 5 months old. He's a big boy, big appetite, and was very very active, my pet shop thought he was almost a little bizzarely active for the species, but now he seems to have calmed down, he used to love to go and hunt down his feeder fish now he doesn't even pay attention to them, let along eat them, he's not very active anymore, just is always dead asleep. He's also developed a bit of the like dry skin looking..ah stuff, on his body and head that seems to be flaking off like a new layer of skin, is he sick or shedding? I took him to where i got him when i became concerned about a whitish colour around his gills, they felt it was a natural colouring to start developing for the black ones. What i'm mostly worried about is this white shedding, flaky stuff on his body. He still seems happy, he eats his frozen food like there's no tomorrow, i don't think he's becoming sluggish just maybe settling down a bit as he gets older. Can anyone help me with this skin? Is it normal for black axolotls? It's been getting worse over the last week, but it so even all over his body there's not so much patches, just his whole body is flaking.
Click to expand...

There are a couple of things that would concern me.

1) were the feeder fish all quarantined for 30days before being added to the tank?
2) feeder fish and axies generally is NOT aq good idea. Fish will/can nibble axie gills and cause infection
3) ANY spreading changes need attention

What you are describing, I would guess is an infection. Fridge your axie NOW and begin salt treatments IMMEDIATELY. If you can post a photo, that would help a lot. Then, clean the tank, remove the fish (permanently) and check water parameters before returning the (totally healthy) axie.

Good luck
 
This thread is over two years old. I really doubt these people are still having this problem.
 
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