Not eating, shedding skin...

Hey guys,

I'm having a problem with one of my axolotls. About a week ago I noticed that she was eating less, and a few days ago she started to shed some skin (or mucous, I can't tell). I took her out of the tank and put her into a tub, giving it 100% daily water changes and trying to feed her a few hours later to make sure the water changes weren't stressing her, but now she's gone completely off food. She also continues to shed bit of skin, which combined with the lack of eating, unfortunately makes her look pretty sad and sorry for herself

I'm reluctant to try the salt baths until I know what's causing it since I don't want to stress it any more than I have to.

I'm going to put her in the fridge tonight, but I was wondering if there were any ideas or suggestions from the good folk around here. Most of the threads I've read have had to do with fungus, however there's nothing visible to indicate that. The tank's been sitting at around 18-20 degrees for the last few months so I doubt it's heat stress.

Also, I'm currently feeding with pellets, but I thought I'd try some live bait to see if something wriggling can help her appetite. Silly question, but where's the best place to get these? I thought I'd try the aquarium but I don't remember seeing them selling any live bait.

Anyway, thanks for any help!

Hi Cyamus,

Could you post up a photo? As spring is round the corner in Australia, the temperature is also creeping up, be sure to check your tank temperature.

If its just a case of skin shedding, you might like to try tea baths. They can sooth shedding skin and is not as stinging as salt baths.

Hey Rayson,

Unfortunately I'm currently camera-less, however I'll try to borrow one tomorrow and post some pics tomorrow night.

As for the tea bath, I'm actually having a little bit of trouble finding out how to do this... The only thing I've seen was 1 teabag to 10 L. Is that about right? And are there any types of tea I should avoid?

Thanks!

Hi,

This is Daniel's method.

The medication is as follows: I take one bag of black tea without any additional aroma (it is important to use black tea because this kind of tea is fermented and so it has tannins) for every 10 litres of water (preferably used in a quarantine tank). This tea gets dashed with boiling water in a seperate bowl - I leave it there for at least 10 to 15 minutes so the tannins are resolved into the water. The tea has to cool down and is finally added to the quarantine water. After a week I make a bigger change of water (60% at least), the rest of the tea is removed over time by normal water changes. If you have to make more regular water changes (f.i. in a small bowl or tank) the tea concentration can be refilled. As far as I know there are no negative effects even for long term treatment.

Sorry, couldn't acquire a camera for a few days, however since I put her in the fridge the peeling has nearly stopped and she's starting to take more of an interest in food, so it looks like she just needed a few days chilling out in the fridge. I noticed the pH of the tank was on the acidic side, perhaps a result of changing the sponge in the filter last week... I'll make sure that goes back to neutral before she goes back in after she's done in the fridge.

Anyway, thanks for your help!