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Axolotl looks really bad after being moved!

strawberrie

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Hello everyone, I'm at a loss right now. Yesterday I switched my axolotl from her 10 gallon to the 30 gallon that I had refurbished, and suddenly she looks absolutely terrible! She has white fluff all over her gills, and little red spots that look kind of like skin pores near her tail. Her gills are curved forward pretty far, and I've never seen her do this before! All water was declorinated to my knowledge, and her test parameters right now are:

ammonia: 0.50 ppm
nitrite: 0.25 ppm
nitrate: 0-5.0 ppm
pH: 8.2

The water very suddenly got quite cold, going from 68 to 59 overnight; could it be that? I'm just really confused, she had no signs of fungus at all before and even with sudden changes I don't think she could get so much to grow on her gills overnight!

I'll upload a photo shortly; I am making her a tea bath right now.
 

strawberrie

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I think I attatched the pictures on this post, but I'm not sure? Either way, she looks a bit better after the tea bath. Does anyone know what it could be?
 

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Tye

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Your ammonia, nitrite, and pH are all very high.
The values you listed for ammonia and nitrite are above the safe levels and are toxic. pH above 8.0 boosts the toxicity of ammonia and nitrite so that isn't helping.
Temperature is fine, the optimal temp for axolotls is 60-64F so a 59F isn't too bad.
My guess is that your axolotl is suffering from ammonia burns and problems that come from the poor water quality.

Was the tank cycled? I would remove the axolotl from the main tank and place it back in the 10gallon until the big one cycles completely. Of course you'll need to test the ten gallon too, in case the cycle crashed due to it being emptied, (if you emptied it).
 

strawberrie

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Your ammonia, nitrite, and pH are all very high.
The values you listed for ammonia and nitrite are above the safe levels and are toxic. pH above 8.0 boosts the toxicity of ammonia and nitrite so that isn't helping.
Temperature is fine, the optimal temp for axolotls is 60-64F so a 59F isn't too bad.
My guess is that your axolotl is suffering from ammonia burns and problems that come from the poor water quality.

Was the tank cycled? I would remove the axolotl from the main tank and place it back in the 10gallon until the big one cycles completely. Of course you'll need to test the ten gallon too, in case the cycle crashed due to it being emptied, (if you emptied it).

That's really strange, the cycle shouldn't have crashed, but I guess it must have...she's been moved back to the 10 gallon, but I did empty it. I'll test it right now, if it's bad what should I do?
 

Giuseppe

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If the water quality in the 10 is poor/or there isn't a cycled filter available for it I would move the axi to a tub where it's possible for you to do 100% water changes every day until the 30 is cycled. You could continue the tea baths if they seem to be helping because it may still help to heal any skin issues caused by the water quality.
 

strawberrie

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If the water quality in the 10 is poor/or there isn't a cycled filter available for it I would move the axi to a tub where it's possible for you to do 100% water changes every day until the 30 is cycled. You could continue the tea baths if they seem to be helping because it may still help to heal any skin issues caused by the water quality.

That's what I've decided to do for now, thank you. She looks really rough, and I feel awful about it...for tea baths, should I be doing them for a set amount of time? I've been putting her in for 10 minutes once a day, but I don't know if that's long enough...I'm not familiar with these kinds of things, so I can't help but feel really stressed out...

Fortunately, the other two are doing fine, but she was my first one ever, she's like my baby... :(
 
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