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Fungal infection of gills?

Jacquie

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It's really hard to take photos of gills! Anyway I've managed to get a photo of the grey stuff in the gills, at the tips. It might be hard to see but I'm pretty sure it's shed skin. I tried using the weak siphon I've been using to remove the water from the tray but I didn't want to suck up the gill by accident and couldn't remove any. I was tempted to use tweezers but didn't want to tweeze a gill by mistake. Is there a better way to remove it from the gills?

You can very gently use a tipex (cotton bud) and see if the grey matter comes away with gentle swiping motions.
 

Darkmaverick

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Hi Cyamus,

Actually im more inclined to think its a fungal infection rather than shedded skin.

Shedding of skin normally occurs in a generalised fashion. There will be shedding throughout the entire body. Even though there might be patchy distribution due to different shedding rates, it would never occur only on gills. I don't see any shedding on the rest of the body.

Furthermore, the wispy cottony appearance is really quite typical of fungus (especially on second gill stalk).

You can still however attempt to gently ease away the material with a cotton Q-tip as suggested by Jacq. What i also like doing is to dip the cotton tip into a 'slime coat protecting product' before using on the axie. Such products could be some brands of dechlorinator such as Stress Coat etc.

I would still recommend fridging first and assess continually (after you physically remove the white material). I would say leave in fridge for at least 2 weeks. If you see there is no improvement or worse still reappearance of more white material, i really think its high time for a salt or tea bath.

Cheers.
 

kira

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Look, I honestly believe that it is fungus! I think that you should start salt baths 3 times a day.

Good luck.
 

Cyamus

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Hey guys. I used the cotton tip but it only removed about 5% of the material before she started getting stressed about it. What I think is happening is that there's a small collection of waste in the water each day which I siphon out before pouring the water out each water change. I assumed it was poo to start with, but soon realised that it wasn't once I saw some actual poo. Now I'm thinking that she sheds a bit of skin each day, and when my parents were taking care, they failed to remove some of it before pouring the water out. It then got caught on her gills and has become tangled.

That's just my theory but if it looks like a fungus then I'll take your experience over my theory. If I tried a weak salt bath could I expect some of it to fall off? It might be easier trying that, the cotton tip didn't work too well and it might make it easier to diagnose.

Apart from the new skin/fungus problem she's looking really healthy, the gills have stopped facing forward and are fuller than they used to be. Once this new problem is fixed then she should be the picture of good health.
 

blueberlin

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It is hard to see but to me, it does look like fungus, I'm afraid.

If you have a turkey baster or pipette, you can try to squirt the fungus off of the gills (gently).

Good luck,

-Eva
 

Cyamus

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Hey guys, I thought I'd post an update. So far the salt baths seem to be working, the strands have almost disappeared and the original white spot is getting smaller. At this rate everything should be clear in a few days.

One problem is that she hasn't eaten since I've come back from holidays, which is around 10 days. She's not getting thin so I'm not too worried, but it would be nice to see her eat something. Any tips to get her eating while she's in the fridge? I tried wiggling the pellets in front of her but she moves away from them. I need to remove them after about 10 minutes before they get soggy.

Cheers.
 

Darkmaverick

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Hi Cyamus,

Thank you for that update. I love happy endings.

The recent fungal infection coupled with the fridging will definitely leave a dent on your axie's appetite.

I find that offering live food is actually better. Firstly the wriggly motion of live food is actually an appetite stimulant, furthermore, live food can live for a period before dying and going off. This is an advantage over pellets.

If you could get your hands on live blackworms and bloodworms, give those a go first. Because they are more 'bite sized', they are more easily consumed. They tend to all clump together in a tangled heap so its easy to be 'gulped' in and easy to siphon out as well. Earthworms are fine as well but perhaps choose the smaller ones or chop up bigger ones. A colossal earthworm will not do too well with the slower rate of digestion.

What i sometimes do is to blend up a mix of food in a food processor to create a 'mash'. You can add in earthworms, bloodworms, blackworms, moistened axie pellets, bits of shrimp and deboned fish meat, bits of beef heart etc. This mash will be kind of mushy but doughy in texture. I would then roll them into pea sized portions and offer to the axie. With my axies, it tends to work quite well. The food particles are already pulverised into tiny bits and so it facilitates digestion (more suface area for enzymes), the composition is nutritious, the mash can be easily stored, and the smell it emits tend to draw axies to them, furthermore, the best bit is that the mash (if you do it correctly) will retain the shape so will not create a mess.

Give the methods and try and see how it goes.

Cheers.
 

Cyamus

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Hey guys. I've been wanting to post an update but the camera I was planning on using is currently on holiday. I was going to post a picture of Milli back in the tank, but text will have to do. The stringy fungus had completely cleared after a few days of salt baths from the fridge, however a small amount of the original white patch remained. It wasn't getting any better or worse so I decided to add her back to the tank and hope she would start eating again. Also other people were getting annoyed that a large part of the fridge was taken up with axolotl gear :p Since she's been back in the tank she's returned to normal healthy behaviour.

The white patch didn't seem to be helped by fridging (although I'm sure she enjoyed the holiday) and salt baths have managed to reduce the size of it, but it still hasn't cleared completely. I'm still performing the salt baths with tank-temperature water (not tank water, just the same temperature), using about 5 tea spoons per litre, as I read in one of the articles. I'm reluctant to increase the strength but I'll consider it unless someone can suggest something else.

So, any new ideas? I think we're close to clearing it, but it's just not quite there yet. Cheers :)
 
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