Illness/Sickness: cooties

I added a freshwater mussel to my tank about a week ago thinking it might be an interesting visual addition and also filter the water....

so now I have 4 axolotls infested with cooties. They are little whitish nodes all over the gills, and also along the ridges of caudal fins and toes. It will be the last time I ever do anything. No more adding little things.

lesson learned, in the mean time, what now?

I don't really know what I'm dealing with here, flukes? fish lice? They are visible and don't seem to be bothering the animals, but it's only begun and must be stressful. The gills are all a-cluster with them.

What are some possible parasites that manifest this way? If only I had a picture to compare to, then I could go onto looking for a treatment option.

I dread the fact that ultimately I'm going to have to scrap an entire planted tank.

heres a closeup

Hi Mitch,

"30 Day Quarantine" for anything that you are going to add to your tank, the downside of not, you are experiencing now.

It could be ICH (Ichthyophthirius multifilis) which manifests as tiny white dots on the gills and or skin, or it could be Glochidia which is the larval stage of many fresh water mussels. Tiny freshwater mussels attached to gill filaments or fins. May also appear as lumps on gill filaments or fins

Good luck

Hi Mitch,

My topmost differential is glochidiosis, although i have only seen them in fishes and not in axolotls. (Jen if you are reading this, this is a good picture and link for cross species disasters).

Glochidia tend to affect periphery and tips (end of filaments, toe tips, tail tips, edges of fins). The reason why i remembered so clearly was because when i was a vet student, i saw pathology samples in salmons with this condition and when i saw the gills, i was repulsed and frankly a bit terrified of touching it. Anything that psychologically traumatised me, i can remember vividly. The salmon's gills look exactly like that. Furthermore, the history you provided of mussels in the tank, the time frame, the rapid affliction to all axolotls, reinforced my differential.

I would recommend you to bring it to a vet who can confirm this diagnosis only by obtaining a biopsy sample and studying it under the microscope. A lot of other conditions may have a similar clinical presentation and can be misleading. Papillary or miliary abscesses, white spot disease, some forms of fungal infection all can look similar. Neoplasia (tumours) are highly unlikely. However, the diffrentiating feature of glochidiosis compared to all others are.

1 - All axies affected.
2 - Regional tissue specificity (tips and periphery) vs white spot etc generalised spots all over body
3 - Presence of mussels in tank
4 - No other typcial bacterial/viral type symptoms and signs

Then comes another difficulty. Treatment. At this point of time, i frankly tell you i have no safe solution. The known treatments for fish, involve chemicals that are very harmful to axolotls - malachite green, formalin etc. I cannot think of any effective treatment strategy to use safely in axolotls. Fridiging will be absolutely useless in this case as with salt baths because the glochidia can withstand the temperature and salinity differences. Your tank will also require treatment if you ultimately intend to house axolotls in them again.

I am very interested in this case and would follow up with it to the best i can. I will contact a shellfish/aquaculture vet specialist in the uni (prof whittington), and try come up with the best solution. Let me get back to you on this one. This is a VERY unique case. The very first axolotl glochidiosis i have ever seen, heard or even read about.

Regards and don't lose hope.

Cheers.

I totally agree, This is definitely glochidiosis
I'm actually much relieved, because now I can just chuck the mother mussel and put the axolotls in a barren tub, in a few weeks, the mussels should just drop off and die on the tub bottom.

Just cycle them away and there will be no new Glochidia to infest the axies.

So far they don't seem to be demonstrating discomfort.

Sound plausible?

Furthermore, Mussels require specific vectors, even some fish do not provide an adequate host, Perhaps the problem will just resolve. I have no fish.

You know, mussels just seemed innocent enough. A Quarantine wouldn't have made a difference.

Hi Mitch,

That does sound plausible, and you are right quarantine in this case wouldn't have made any difference.

Yeah, It looks like an amiable prognosis. The axolotls seem normal, hungry, responsive, relaxed.
Once the Glochidia fall off, the axolotls should be fine, even if the mussels advance to the next stage, they probably won't survive the tank for long, and even so, won't reach breeding (Glochid producing) age until years after they are large enough to be manually removed.

And here I had this idea that a filter-feeder would help to keep the tank clean and promote good health.
I never would have thought that freshwater mussels were parasitic, I just took for granted that they probably reproduced like any other bivalve mollusk. Fortunately, my hard-knock zoology lesson didn't come at a heavy cost.

This was somewhat born of an ambition I have to create an outdoor water feature this year, I thought (as I've read) that freshwater mussels help clarify the water, SO I collected one and thought I would test it on my tank, clearing water and providing an interesting addition, Test complete, result negative.

Hi Mitch,

Sorry i took a while to get back. I am having a bizarre computer problem and since im a self confessed IT moron, i can't log on to caudata at home.

Anyway, i have consulted a few of my vet colleagues. We did have a similar plan to you. We agreed on the following points.

1 - Although all 4 of us (vets) are pretty sure its glochidiosis, to be honest, we cannot definitively diagnose and confirm without proper biopsy and microscopy. Therefore, there is still the slim chance that is is something else like bacteria or fungal infection (but seriously really low on differentials).

2 - If all your axies are affected, there is no point in quarantine/isolation. Just do not add any new axies/fish etc in the tank.

3 - We agreed that no chemical treatments are suitable. Salt baths will not help as well.

4 - Glochidia are generally host specific and tissue specific (hence the specific tropism). However, we are not sure to what extent the axie can serve as a host because we cannot find any relevant literature. Hopefully, they will eventually die, fall off and breake the life cycle as hoped.

5 - Thing to consider is that glochidiosis traumatises skin. It damages the integrity of the skin barrier function and also the protective mucus production. This would increase the susceptibility of your axies to infections and changes in water parameters. Hnce, you have to be extra vigilant about water conditions to prevent secondary infections. Fridging can help when necessary.

Cheers.

This is an interesting thread. Be sure to keep us updated. I'm now glad that I turned down those freshwater mussels a while back....

About day 6

At this point, the Glochidia are still present on the gill filaments, toe tips, and fin margins. The axolotls do not seem irritated by this however.
That said, I have noticed a few behavioral changes. Though, I should add, they aren't exactly negative.
For starters, their appetite has increased, Their feeding response has become more aggressive. When I open the tank, they dash to the surface and clamor over each other frantically for a morsel of worm.

Normally they accept food, but not nearly so enthusiastically. I theorized that perhaps the Glochidia are sapping something from them, increasing their nutrition requirements. Or maybe they are just getting ready to breed. The males cloaca is growing, which would be normal for the season, so there is probably going to be some breeding in spite of this.

As for gills, The Glochids seem to be thinning out in the gills, But I think this is because the axolotls are generating fresh gill filaments to compensate for the loss of surface area The gills are getting fuller, more bushy.
Whatever the reality of it, They aren't gill-flicking much at all, Perhaps even less than before the predicament, which to me suggests near-ideal respiratory functioning.


No change appears in the fin margins, no additional glochids, or loss thereof, in contrast to the gills which appear less infested by surface area to glochid ratio.

Overall, nothing seems wrong but for the visible pale nodes.

It occurs to me that glochidia-spawning freshwater mussels occur in the same waters as Tiger salamander larvae and Mudpuppies. Perhaps in the wild, such infestations occur.

A little after 2 weeks now and all glochidia is absent from gills, There is still some present on toe and fin margins, Probably because the gill hangers were expelled by proximity-reflex by the mother mussel. The ones on feet and fins could have been picked up any time after their birth as simply gregarious opportunists present about the substrate.

I Believe they, too, will drop away soon.

For the axolotls to have not picked up any secondary infections after weeks of this, I think, bodes well for the tanks fitness to house them.

The condition is now completely resolved. No noticeable impact remains.
So there It is, Thanks to Darkmaverick and ianclick for having the knowledge to identify this molluskish conundrum.
The big old world is just so full of wonders and surprises, It's comforting to know there's always someone who can apply gray matter to a gray matter, and put things back to black and white.

Congratulation Mitch. Happy to hear they are fine =). Looked really creepy

Excellent!! So glad to hear they all turned out well!!