Paivi
New member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2012
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- Location
- Newcastle, Australia
- Country
- Finland
Hi there!
We have an acute problem with one of our axolots and I would appreciate some advise, please!
Last night, I saw Blackie - a wild type female - with a little bright red blister on her side, like a pin prick. It looked kind of odd, and was quite visible as she was up near the surface under the light. I was going to investigate, when the kids took my attention away, until only about 15min later my partner called out in shock. She was swimming now and there was blood oozing out of her pores! And it wasn't like she was injured or bitten or anything, but her whole skin seemed to be full of these little blisters and she was bleeding from several places all at once. Haemorrhaging would probably be the correct term to use here.
Immediately we took her out of the tank, into a clean container and placed her in the fridge. The bleeding stopped, but my partner said she felt really slimy when he lifted her out of the tank, like her skin (or slimecoat) was coming off, and he had to wash his hands really well afterwards.
So far this is all we've done. She is in the fridge, she is not bleeding but the little blisters are still there although they quite small, I have to shine a torch on her skin to see them properly. (That's why I haven't attached any photos here, as I haven't been able to get any that actually shows the problem properly. I will try again tomorrow with proper light if it's of any help to solve what this is.)
So my question is, what could this be? I have never seen anything like it before, and seeing the blood come out of her last night was kind of scary! I tried to search the forum for an answer but didn't really find much that would match this situation. I saw the term "red leg" used in a few posts, one older one by Rayson that to me looked like it could be what Blackie is having. But what is it? What causes it? And what to do about it? I haven't had the chance to call the vet yet (we are lucky enough to have a great exotics vet nearby), but I'm not sure if we should or if this can be treated at home? Would she need antibiotics (then she'd need a vet)? And what's the outcome of this? As much as it pains me to say this, but at the moment I cannot spend hundreds of dollars for trying to treat something that has a very small chance of getting fixed. Then again, if all she needs is a course of antibiotics and she'll be fine, then I'm happy to do that!
For background, we have 4 axolots in a 4ft tank, the others don't have this problem, although we have had some issues with most of them lately, mainly fungus in the gills which has been treated with salt baths and fridgeing, and main tank water changes. There is a chiller that keeps the tank temperature at 15-17 degrees. And two filters in both ends of the tank, one with a sray bar, the other one with the flow reduced and pointing to the back wall (the 2nd filter is there because my partner felt the tank was not staying clean enough - not sure whether the 2nd filter is actually required, but he looks at things from a fish keeper's perspective). There is a thin layer of sand on the bottom, live plants and hidy holes of different sorts. The water tests look normal. And their diet consists of mainly earthworms from our garden. Sometimes we offer them pellets (only 2 of them will eat pellets though), or defrosted frozen fish strips or pieces of prawn.
Any ideas as to what this could be and what to do about it are appreaciated! And if anyone can tell me what this "red leg" disease is, and if that's what Blackie might have, that would be great too, as I could not find anything when I did a search on the forum with that. Is there a tread I should read perhaps? Maybe I used a wrong search word...
Thank you,
Paivi & Blackie
We have an acute problem with one of our axolots and I would appreciate some advise, please!
Last night, I saw Blackie - a wild type female - with a little bright red blister on her side, like a pin prick. It looked kind of odd, and was quite visible as she was up near the surface under the light. I was going to investigate, when the kids took my attention away, until only about 15min later my partner called out in shock. She was swimming now and there was blood oozing out of her pores! And it wasn't like she was injured or bitten or anything, but her whole skin seemed to be full of these little blisters and she was bleeding from several places all at once. Haemorrhaging would probably be the correct term to use here.
Immediately we took her out of the tank, into a clean container and placed her in the fridge. The bleeding stopped, but my partner said she felt really slimy when he lifted her out of the tank, like her skin (or slimecoat) was coming off, and he had to wash his hands really well afterwards.
So far this is all we've done. She is in the fridge, she is not bleeding but the little blisters are still there although they quite small, I have to shine a torch on her skin to see them properly. (That's why I haven't attached any photos here, as I haven't been able to get any that actually shows the problem properly. I will try again tomorrow with proper light if it's of any help to solve what this is.)
So my question is, what could this be? I have never seen anything like it before, and seeing the blood come out of her last night was kind of scary! I tried to search the forum for an answer but didn't really find much that would match this situation. I saw the term "red leg" used in a few posts, one older one by Rayson that to me looked like it could be what Blackie is having. But what is it? What causes it? And what to do about it? I haven't had the chance to call the vet yet (we are lucky enough to have a great exotics vet nearby), but I'm not sure if we should or if this can be treated at home? Would she need antibiotics (then she'd need a vet)? And what's the outcome of this? As much as it pains me to say this, but at the moment I cannot spend hundreds of dollars for trying to treat something that has a very small chance of getting fixed. Then again, if all she needs is a course of antibiotics and she'll be fine, then I'm happy to do that!
For background, we have 4 axolots in a 4ft tank, the others don't have this problem, although we have had some issues with most of them lately, mainly fungus in the gills which has been treated with salt baths and fridgeing, and main tank water changes. There is a chiller that keeps the tank temperature at 15-17 degrees. And two filters in both ends of the tank, one with a sray bar, the other one with the flow reduced and pointing to the back wall (the 2nd filter is there because my partner felt the tank was not staying clean enough - not sure whether the 2nd filter is actually required, but he looks at things from a fish keeper's perspective). There is a thin layer of sand on the bottom, live plants and hidy holes of different sorts. The water tests look normal. And their diet consists of mainly earthworms from our garden. Sometimes we offer them pellets (only 2 of them will eat pellets though), or defrosted frozen fish strips or pieces of prawn.
Any ideas as to what this could be and what to do about it are appreaciated! And if anyone can tell me what this "red leg" disease is, and if that's what Blackie might have, that would be great too, as I could not find anything when I did a search on the forum with that. Is there a tread I should read perhaps? Maybe I used a wrong search word...
Thank you,
Paivi & Blackie