Illness/Sickness: Parasitic Skin Infection? Please Help!

Hey,

I previously posted in this section after our small axolotl (we call him/her Jermu) stopped eating. Jermu has not eaten for almost 3 weeks now that I have seen, but at the same time Jermu has not lost significant weight and his head and limbs have been growing.

All this time we've kept offering Jermu food on a daily basis. Bloodworms, cut up earthworms and pellets, he/she has not touched any of them.

Now within the last few days these bugs have been multiplying like crazy and are conquering his skin. The bugs also like to hang around on the aquarium glass. They are able to move extremely fast in short dashes.

Another thought I had concerning the bugs was that could Jermu actually have a fungal infection and those bugs are eating away the fungus? Jermu seems to have some slight white patches where those bugs like to be on his skin.

Any idea what the bugs might be? There's a video and couple pictures of them below behind the link.

https://imgur.com/a/wVYGHRc


What I have noticed also during this time when he has had a bad appetite, is that his gills seem to deteriorate and then regrow in quite short cycles. Possibly stress from those bugs?



Water temp is solid 17 celsius / 62.6 farenheit.

Tank volume is 180 liters / 47.5 Gallons.

Water params are in check. I previously even took the water to be tested at an aquarium shop with better test gear.

Water changes are made 1-2 times weekly. Lately we have been doing at least 50% changes.

Filter is a canister filter with a spray bar setup so that there is no noticeable flow.

Water conditioner is Seachem prime. We were previously using Tetra Aquasafe, but learned that it contains iodine which can be harmful to axolotls.

Yesterday I added some salts to the tank and the tank is at 20% John's Solution now.

Those look like copepods or seed shrimp to me! They are harmless in the aquarium and often come with plants or decor. They can act as a cleanup crew since they are attracted to uneaten/decaying food, which makes sense if your axolotl is not eating. Making sure that all the uneaten food is regularly removed, and continuing your large water changes will take care of the population.

khalfrogo said:

Those look like copepods or seed shrimp to me! They are harmless in the aquarium and often come with plants or decor. They can act as a cleanup crew since they are attracted to uneaten/decaying food, which makes sense if your axolotl is not eating. Making sure that all the uneaten food is regularly removed, and continuing your large water changes will take care of the population.

Click to expand...

Hi massive thanks for your reply! Copepods was something that we had been thinking they could be and after having a better look with a magnifying lens, their bodily structure looks just like that of copepods. Do you know if they can cause stress to the axolotl if they crawl on his skin?

What's your opinion on those white areas on his skin where the copepods like to gather? That whitish growth is also on two of his gills. Most likely fungus?

We started salt baths yesterday and will continue 10 minute sessions at least once a day at a salt concentration of 2 teaspoons salt for every 1 liter of water.

We have also upped our sand vacuuming.

Also any opinion on the sand substrate? Is the sand too large for that size axolotl? He is around 4.5 inches.

He has not eaten in 3 weeks now. He has completely lost interest in food. Is it possible that an axolotl can die from hunger or will they eventually get hungry enough that they will eat to survive, as long as we keep offering food every day?

When we first got him, he had a massive appetite, but I think I made a mistake of giving him a too large bit of earthworm which in return caused him to get bloated and he started to float a lot.

The floating caused a lot of stress, but we managed to get that under control by lowering the tank temperature a few degrees and we also helped him rest by placing a smaller plastic container on the surface of the water where we kept him shallow enough so that he could firmly stand on the bottom of the container, while changing the water almost 100% 2-3 times a day.


Once again, thank you so much for your reply.

if the white patches are fungus you should notice improvement after a couple days of consecutive salt baths. i had a stubborn case of fungus with two of mine and ultimately ended up using methylene blue dips (half the fish dose) which killed it off pretty quickly so if salt baths seem not to work you can try that.
ive seen other people with those same little bugs, if i recall correctly they dont bother the axys much unless the population gets too big then they can be irritating and make them itch.
have you tried tempting him with other foods? if he eats red wigglers its common for them to reject the bitter tasting goo the worms secrete, blanching them helps. pellets might be good to try if you havent already, if he gets thin to the point of immediate concern you can also make a slurry from them to force feed (last resort, directions are pinned on this site)

i feel like the sand shouldnt be an issue at 4.5 inches but maybe check if you can see or feel sand in his gut, if its impacted that could be the cause of the food refusal

KumquatSquats said:

if the white patches are fungus you should notice improvement after a couple days of consecutive salt baths. i had a stubborn case of fungus with two of mine and ultimately ended up using methylene blue dips (half the fish dose) which killed it off pretty quickly so if salt baths seem not to work you can try that.
ive seen other people with those same little bugs, if i recall correctly they dont bother the axys much unless the population gets too big then they can be irritating and make them itch.
have you tried tempting him with other foods? if he eats red wigglers its common for them to reject the bitter tasting goo the worms secrete, blanching them helps. pellets might be good to try if you havent already, if he gets thin to the point of immediate concern you can also make a slurry from them to force feed (last resort, directions are pinned on this site)

i feel like the sand shouldnt be an issue at 4.5 inches but maybe check if you can see or feel sand in his gut, if its impacted that could be the cause of the food refusal

Click to expand...

The salt baths seem to do the trick at least for his gills. Huge improvement in only two days already. Will keep doing 12 minute salt baths daily at 2 teaspoons of NaCl for every liter of water.