Illness/Sickness: Reduced Gills possible fungus

I have a very sick looking axolotl. He's a GFP Albino. Just over a month ago noticed his gills looked smaller. I thought it was from the other axolotl at first, but then I noticed a strange offshoot from one of his front digits. It looked like shedding skin but now I'm thinking it looks more like a odd digit regrowth. The same front limb began appearing vascularized- quite red, which was spreading up. I assumed he had a fungus (the lobe looked like it could be) and by reading other posts, his symptoms seemed to fit. Up until now I hadn't seen any other evidence of fungi as he is white-colored and so it's difficult to discern. At this point I began refrigerating him (5ºC) and giving him salt baths every other day. They are for 15 minutes using API aquarium salt. I use just under 1/8 of a cup in half a gallon of water.

I wasn't home over the weekend and so he went an extra day without the salt bath. Up until then he was starting to look good, his gills were slowly regrowing and the vascularization disappeared. The black digit tips on his toes had grown back too. The weird lobe has remained constant however. When I looked at him today, his gills had gotten much worse than before. There also appears to be a white substance along his gill sides, but I'm unsure whether this is fungus or morphologically natural as I've never seen his gills so short.There were pink gill parts floating in the water along with a green substance which I can only guess was excrement. I've been leaving a couple of salamander pellets in with him (his and his tank mate diet) but he hasn't been eating since being in the fridge. I didn't think this was an issue as I knew his metabolism would slow due to the cold. I'm thinking that I should do the salt bath every day? If anyone has any more suggestions I'm all ears! His tank mate has long fluffy gills and no sign of distress (water levels are as they should be).

...I... that Axolotl just looks so bad I'm kinda at a loss as to what to tell you except take it to a herp vet. That would really be the best course of action at this point.

^ +1. That axie is very sick and needs expert help. That photo with the green poop also has blood on the floor - not a good sign, and neither are those visible red veins.

So my axolotl unfortunately died this morning. I got medication (Metronidazole) for a bacterial infection as the veterinarian said that what people keep calling a fungus is actually a bacteria...the fluffy white stuff? Any way I treated the water with it as instructed and removed my axolotl from the fridge. This must have accelerated the disease as he immediately began hemorrhaging from the gills and nose. I ad separated out the healthy axolotl into another smaller tank but I would like to move him back....Should I wait for the medication to kill off any bacteria in the water (5 days) or take out all the water before this? How efficient do I need to be in cleaning my plants and cave? I couldn't bear to have another axolotl get sick!

Sorry for your loss.

If you have another axolotl I would keep a close eye on your water parameters... Is the tank cycled? What's the reading for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph? Also, what temperature is the water in the tank?

The gills look like they had fungus on them. However, fungus normally appears when their skin is damaged (bad water quality) or their immune system is low through illness etc. So, first things first, you need to check your water quality!

I would sanitize the tank before putting the healthy axolotl back in it.

Here's a short little tutorial on how: How to Disinfect (Sanitize) your aquarium/fish-tank.

Taking everything out however will crash your cycle and you'll have to re-cycle the tank before putting the lotl back in. If you have another established tank you can seed it from there.

From the look of your axolotl, I'm going to guess you had severe ammonia problems in your tank.

Also, I hate to ask because it seems very obvious to most people here, but you said your axolotl was GFP. How often did you have a black light on it?