Help with new arrival

Hi all, I've had plenty of fish in my past but I'm new to axolotl's. My first axie was a rehoming from a gal whose husband enlisted in the military and couldn't take it with her. The axie is doing great and enjoying a 40B all by itself.

My newest concern is that I agreed to help someone with rehoming 2 of her axies, she needed to ship to me. I paid for the axie's and shipping and extra for dry ice, the axies arrived today with a DOA copper (mouth wide open) and a very dead like wild. I let both axies out of their travel bags (didn't appear to have any extra oxygen in them) to verify and the copper was indeed dead. The wild was not rigid, mouth closed but non responsive. Sooo, the wild went into a tub of cool dechlorinated water and I waited, and waited, and waited. The wild finally started to move, and is very slowly moving more. However, now the gills appear to have some fungus on them, as well there appears to be either fungus or slime coat sliding off on its sides. I've lowered the water so the axie cannot roll over (was doing that earlier but righted itself on its own). I've done the ial water, and just recently added black tea. My concern is that when adding the black tea the axie swam away from it like it was trying to get away. Is this normal, or just a reaction to something 'else' in the water? I also put frozen packs under the tub to keep him cool. Any/all advice is greatly appreciated, I didn't go into work today because I'm fighting to save this little guy. Thanks in advance.

Sorry about the loss of the copper.
Try and post some photos if you can (you can click the paperclip when replying to attach, or on your profile you can open a gallery and link that here). If it's a slime coat issue I would say tea baths, if it's fluffy fungus I would use a salt bath, but don't use both methods at the same time. Will wait for photos to confirm.
Are you adding the tea to the tank, or a separate bath? I recently did tea baths in a separate tub and had the axolotl in there for about 10-15 mins.
Is the axolotl staying in a smaller tub or have you got it in a tank?

Hayleyy said:

Sorry about the loss of the copper.
Try and post some photos if you can (you can click the paperclip when replying to attach, or on your profile you can open a gallery and link that here). If it's a slime coat issue I would say tea baths, if it's fluffy fungus I would use a salt bath, but don't use both methods at the same time. Will wait for photos to confirm.
Are you adding the tea to the tank, or a separate bath? I recently did tea baths in a separate tub and had the axolotl in there for about 10-15 mins.
Is the axolotl staying in a smaller tub or have you got it in a tank?

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The axie seems to be improving but I'm still cautious, will see what overnight holds. First I did an ial bath, that didn't seem to do much for the fungus but it did seem to settle the axie a little bit. I then did a black tea bath. The axie is tubbed so not in tank. I actually have multiple same size tubs to make water changes and such easier. I left the axie in the tea bath for about 30 minutes then switched back to regular cool dechlorinated water in tub. I just finished a 2nd tea bath and the fungus/fluff seems to be for the most part gone. I was able to gently swab the fluff away and remove from the tank. The axie (Rocky cuz he's a fighter) doesn't seem to mind being handled gently to switch tanks. I keep him in the spare bathroom in the tub, in his tub with a cover with lights off and a fan blowing into the room to keep it overall cool. The next 12 hrs should let me know if he'll make the turn at the corner.

Re: Help with new arrival : update

Hi all, Rocky has made it past the 24 hr mark. Just checked on him and he seems better, gill fluff gone after 1 round of ial and 2 black tea baths. His gills are back and he's breathing normal (I guess). His tank is not ready yet so he's still being tubbed until it is. What do you suggest is my next step? Just monitor and try to get him to eat? Still no interest in eating but I'm sure if I'd been through what he's been through I'd not be interested in eating just yet. Thanks in advance.

Great that you're seeing progress! Keep him tubbed until the tank is under control. Do tea baths until there is no trace of the fungus any more. Since the tea baths are working, keep them going rather than changing to salt. Good idea to have multiple tubs ready for water changes!

Hayleyy said:

Great that you're seeing progress! Keep him tubbed until the tank is under control. Do tea baths until there is no trace of the fungus any more. Since the tea baths are working, keep them going rather than changing to salt. Good idea to have multiple tubs ready for water changes!

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Rocky ate 2 small/thin worms yesterday but nothing since. He appears to have no hunting instinct or care to eat, he won't take a worm or pellets. I'm currently doing 2x a day water changes and he doesn't seem to mind much that I handle him (gently) but he is getting a little friskier when I do.

Tonight I was doing water changes and noticed that his gill fringe is starting to flake/peel off in tiny pieces. Could this be due to his stress, warmer water temps, any guesses? I'm cycling his 20long tank and when checking water parameters today and yesterday the ammonia = 0, nitrites = 0, and nitrates = about 20. I'm using seeded media to jump start the tank and so far so good. I checked tank parameters again today and they are holding steady. If tomorrow checks good I'll move him into his tank. It's bare bottom with a couple of hides. He'll be the only inhabitant as my others are small, about 4-5 inches and yes they would fit in his mouth if he had an appetite. Any suggestions on what to do with his gill fringe? I'm worried that he might start morphing due to the stress he was under from shipping. Thanks in advance.

The tank sounds great! It seems to have cycled, but like you said check it tomorrow then he should be good to go in.
Were you fridging him? If you were, this will make his appetite decrease. If you weren't it's okay that he doesn't seem interested. They can go off food while recovering from stress. They can easily go a week or so without food. Keep offering every day in case.
The gills should recover once he has been in good cold water conditions, it will just take some time. It would have been caused by stress. Keep up with testing the water and water changes accordingly. Does the slime coat look okay? Watch for any "shedding" or white areas as this can be damage to the skin, fixed with tea baths.

This is going to sound odd, but thank you for posting a picture of the copper... if you do an image search for dead axolotl you turn up a lot of clearly sick but alive axolotls, and as sad as it is that he died (and I love these beautiful little weirdos, so I hate to see it happen) it's good to have an example of what it looks like when it happens.

Hayleyy said:

The tank sounds great! It seems to have cycled, but like you said check it tomorrow then he should be good to go in.
Were you fridging him? If you were, this will make his appetite decrease. If you weren't it's okay that he doesn't seem interested. They can go off food while recovering from stress. They can easily go a week or so without food. Keep offering every day in case.
The gills should recover once he has been in good cold water conditions, it will just take some time. It would have been caused by stress. Keep up with testing the water and water changes accordingly. Does the slime coat look okay? Watch for any "shedding" or white areas as this can be damage to the skin, fixed with tea baths.

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Hayleyy thank you for the reply. Unfortunately Rocky seems to have taken a turn for the worse. I got home from work and tank temp was 68 (I put fan on low thinking it was on high). His tank is along a darkened wall so I got a flashlight to check on him and found his tail a mess. The end has always looked kinda funky since he arrived and I'm not sure if all the stress has finally caught up with it or what. The end looks to have rotted away, and there is a cartilage/bone exposed. I feel horrible. I immediately checked tank parameters, ammonia is a little high, probably because he spent the past 2 days in there. There are 2 seeded filters running and a sponge filter but maybe I need more media in the filters. After checking tank parameters I moved Rocky into a tub with cool dechlorinated water and black tea. He was a bit feisty when moving him so at least he fighting. He spent about 20 minutes in the tea bath and he's now back in a different tub with cool dechlorinated water. I put frozen water bottles in his tank to bring the temp down and it's now at 64 which is closer to where I like to see it. I've attached pic of tail and water readings. After review any suggestions on how I should proceed? It seems to be an uphill battle to save this little guy but as long as HE fights I'LL fight. Thanks.

tundrabadger said:

This is going to sound odd, but thank you for posting a picture of the copper... if you do an image search for dead axolotl you turn up a lot of clearly sick but alive axolotls, and as sad as it is that he died (and I love these beautiful little weirdos, so I hate to see it happen) it's good to have an example of what it looks like when it happens.

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Thank you for that. Yes from everything I've read if the mouth is wide open most likely it's passed. Just to be sure I moved both axie's from their travel bags and put them into separate tubs with cool/dechlorinated water and waited. I waited 30 minutes before Rocky moved at all, and the little copper did not. I felt so bad because it was so small.

axiemom001 said:

It seems to be an uphill battle to save this little guy but as long as HE fights I'LL fight. Thanks.

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That's the spirit!

Keep up what you're doing with the tubbing. Replace the water every day and keep it cool. Axolotls can grow most parts of the body back so hopefully he stays strong for you! Offer him food (if he doesn't take, give it a couple of hours then offer again). If you are feeding live worms you could try leaving one in the tub with him to see if he will hunt it out (remove after 20 mins or so if he doesn't eat it). I have a new axie who is not used to hand feeding but will eat a worm if I leave it in there.

Hayleyy said:

Keep up what you're doing with the tubbing. Replace the water every day and keep it cool. Axolotls can grow most parts of the body back so hopefully he stays strong for you! Offer him food (if he doesn't take, give it a couple of hours then offer again). If you are feeding live worms you could try leaving one in the tub with him to see if he will hunt it out (remove after 20 mins or so if he doesn't eat it). I have a new axie who is not used to hand feeding but will eat a worm if I leave it in there.

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It's been a few days since I've posted, Rocky is still hanging in there. His tail sorta cleared up/dropped off. The cartilage part seems to have disappeared and the tail end is blunt. I'm still monitoring him but the temps are/were stupid crazy warm where I am and keeping everyone cool has been a challenge.

Checked on Rocky again and seems the fungus is trying to get a hold again. So this time I'm tubbing with periodic meth blue dips. 1 gallon water with 3-4 drops of blue. I read on another forum that black tea helps but the fungus could keep coming back, and the caffeine was hard on their hearts. Well Rocky has enough problems without me adding to them. So, I'll be doing 2-3 blue dips per day to try to kick this fungus. I got 2 more chillers and I'm flushing them out and making sure they work. Rocky's tank is still cycling, it appears it had a mini crash and ammonia spiked so keeping him tubbed till it is all settled permanently. I've gotten some floater plants and moss balls to help with the nitrates, will be getting pothos to put in the filter to help also. I think if he'd get well enough to be in his tank permanently he'd start to improve without setbacks. Will keep you posted with his progress. Thanks for reading and letting me vent.