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Fuzzy white stuff of doom! Newbie needs help desperately and has pics too! :(

NitroGlow

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Hello everyone! I'm a newbie Axolotl owner and I have two juvenile Axolotls. I have read a lot about their care and needs, and have been maintaining safe water levels, good temps and such....but yet... there's this fluffy white fuzz that grows in my tank...I have no idea what it is...is it fungus? Is it mold? Is it toxic?? It's REALLY hard to take pictures of it and I don't have the best camera in the world but I will try my best to describe it's characteristics along with the few crappy cam pictures I've taken so hopefully someone might be able to help me... =/

So...this fluffy white stuff in my tank seems to grow every day...and it mostly just likes to float around in the water, and then it floats down the bottom of the tank every day in little lumpy fluffy piles. I can easily suck it up with my turkey baster (and I usually spend about half an hour to an hour each day sucking out all the fuzz ...every bit of it that I can see) None of it seems to stick to the walls of the tank or anything...it just floats around...like lumpy clouds...but I have noticed the only thing it DOES stick to is my plant's roots in the tank or my moss strand thingy that I have in there...and if I take my turkey baster to the plant roots, I can actually suck it off of them. What on earth is this stuff? How do I get rid of it? It's ugly and annoying and I want it gone! I've been doing daily water changes anywhere from 10 - 30 % and this does not seem to help. By the next morning there's always more that has grown then floated to the bottom of the tank all clumped together....What is this? Is it mold, is it fungus? How can I get rid of it ?_?
Here are some pictures I've taken of it PLEASE VIEW IT FULL VIEW:
6snkX31.png


Both of my tiny juvie axolotls are sharing one ten gallon tank with an acrylic divider in the middle with adequate holes in it for the water to gently flow through that they cannot hurt themselves on.
My temperature is at a steady 65 - 67 Fahrenheit. My ammonia level is 0. My nitrite and Nitrate levels were 0. My PH. level is 6.5 ( I know this is a bit low...not sure how I can bring P.H up....I've read 7.4 is ideal...)
I have a small bubbler for air and have a control valve on it to have small air bubbles coming out of the small filter that's attatched to it...I don't know what kind it is...but it operates through the bubbler and just floats around inside the tank. (I want to buy a better sponge filter this week because I don't think this one is working at all)
The plants I have in my tank are: TONS of Duckweed, Moneywart, Sword plant, and two others I forgot the name of but were recommended as being very safe for axies as well as some moss thingy)

My smallest Axolotl named Nitro is a GFP Leucistic and he has some gene thing that is two back legs never move, they just hang there, they look fine...but they never move. I don't know what the breeder said it was called...but Nitro is a champion eater, very spunky and was actually more aggressive than my larger plain Leucistic axie. Now...I don't know if this is caused by the white fluffy stuff in my tank...but he has two gray spots on his tail that look like they may have grown? I don't know what they are, but can be seen from either side of his tail...they don't look fuzzy...but I don't think they're normal either and I was hoping someone might be able to help me in telling me what they are and if they were caused by the white fluffy stuff...and if so...what can I do to help him get rid of them? He's 2 inches long, still eats, poops a lot and is very active...Here is a picture of him with the two gray spots he has on him, Please view full view of this pic!:
de55Nk5.png


My larger Leucistic Axolotl named Echo has suffered a few minor injuries from when he was housed together with my little GFP axie. The guy I got him from said they'd be fine to keep together...I now know that it is not good to keep juvenile axolotls together due to their cannibalistic nature. Anyways..the little one actually picked on him so much that he has multiple injuries all over so as soon as I noticed them I hastily made it a point to separate them and put in the acrylic divider to keep them separate. He has small cuts on his two front arms, one back toe bitten off, one front toe is intact but swollen and has a tiny chunk out of the tip of his tail. All these injuries happened over the course of a day...I went to bed one night and they were completely fine...woke up the next and Echo's all beaten up, but Nitro doesn't have a scratch on him. =( His injuries HAVE been healing remarkably fast since I've separated them...but...I'm worried about that fuzzy stuff...Despite his injuries...he eats EXTREMELY well, is very active and has doubled in size since I brought him home...(he's 3 inches long from head to tail tip too)

Oh...and not sure if this means anything...but I had them in a large plastic Tupperware bin for awhile until I put them in their ten gallon tank and read that plastic containers can sometimes grow stuff on them because of the textured surface and I am pretty certain this fuzzy stuff came in from the water in that I kept them in the bin.

Oh...and I got Planaria thanks to live plants I bought. HOW do I get rid of these in an axolotl tank? I suck out poops AND uneaten food right away (I feed as much as my Axies can eat within 20 minutes)...I never leave food or poops to sit in the water but yet here the planaria are! I also suck them out every day too whenever I see them!.... :( They're too small to take pics of though...they look like mini light colored leeches...but super tiny and swarm the bloodworms when I feed my axies)

*Sigh* I know I have a zillion and one questions and likely problems...so I'm really hoping someone could...PLEASE HELP ME! I love my Axolotls and I don't want them to die...and I'm willing and open to listen to ideas and suggestions, and to do anything to help my little guys to grow up to be the happiest and healthiest that they can be.
 

HayleyK

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It kind of looks like hydra to me but usually hydra sticks to the glass. Whatever it is I have it on my plants too and is harmless. To help get rid of it as well as the planaria, you need to scrape it off as much as you can and then siphon them all out.

As for the specks I don't think it is related to the hydra-type growth or planaria. Your tank seems to be uncycled. A cycled tank reads 0 ammonia and nitrites with some reading but less than 40ppm nitrates. How long have you been running your tank?

Axolotls are not cannibals - they're opportunistic eaters meaning they will snap at anything that moves. Keeping them both well fed will prevent these kind of attacks. I've kept 2 juveniles together in a small tank at 1.5"-2" without one injury. So what are you feeding them, and how much?

The Tupperware tub has nothing to do with this :)
 

NitroGlow

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I feed them a lot of blood worms. I feed them until their bellies are as wide as their head....by the time they're both done feeding their bellies are huge and round...it's so cute to see how they're all red from being filled with bloodworms :D.

Everywhere I've read has mentioned online in more than one case that regardless of how much you feed, juvenile Axolotls can be very cannibalistic towards each other. I've read that they tame down a lot as adults, but as juveniles they are crazy because they are in constant competition with each other and will nip off limbs even if totally full to the brim.... You're very lucky to have had no problems yet. My sister's friend told me how she had various Axolotls kept together for years that never harmed each other until one day, one bit of them suddenly bit of the other's leg. If anything, I'm probably close to over-feeding...but I feed them a lot! I feed them every single day about the same time, and I break off a frozen chunk of bloodworms for each Axolotl the size of their heads, then I let each chunk thaw thoroughly, then I pour the bloodworms in to their own sides of their tank and watch them enjoy their meal.

I've had my Axolotls since the 11th of may...this month...and since that time..Echo has doubled in size and Nitro has gotten atleast a quarter - to half size bigger than he was since the day I brought him home.

I guess I'll just keep sucking out the planaria and the fluffy stuff...

But as for the gray spots...I looked closely and I noticed that Nitro now has a few more tiny spots...and that BOTH of my Axolotls fingertips look like they have a bit of the white gray fuzz on their fingers...but only on just the tips...and it's especially the worst on Echo's front swollen finger. Hmmmm....I don't know what it is!

And...I don't think my tank is cycled yet...and I've been checking every 3 - 4 days doing full water tests to make sure I know when the ammonia spike is coming...but I do a 10 -30 % water change every day just because I'm constantly sucking out their poop, uneaten food, planaria and the little fluffy fuzzy cloud stuff that floats to the bottom :S

So...hmm...I hope the fluffy stuff is safe! But those little spot things worry me and the fuzz on their finger tips...maybe it could just be from them crawling around through the fuzz stuff all day? I'm not 100% if it's actually growing on their finger tips...could just be stuck on it from them walking through the fuzz....hmmm....I'm so curious and worried to know what it is for certain and if it's dangerous....'cause if it's something bad I want to do what I can to treat it right away....As long as they're still being active and eating a ton I won't be too worried...but if it's something that could progress and get worse and then they'd get sick and not eat later...I wanna find out now so I can get rid of it and take care of them!
 
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