So we've upgraded Sharky and George's house from a tiny 25 litre tank to a nice and roomy 160 litre job. To move them in, I simply poured in all their existing well cycled tank water (plus about 5 liters fresh water on top) with their existing filter and all their plants. I let them get over the shock for a few days then began to add dechlorinated tap water, one bucket a day until the aquarium was pretty much full...Great! On a trip to the local aquarium, my girlfriend spotted a loverly white axolotl and insisted he'd go great with the other two wild type axies. Sharky and George had been doing fine for about a month by this time, and we had the space, so we decided to bring him home.
This is where it all went wrong. His first night was fine, he seemed to settle in fine. He was slightly more skittish than the other two but that's to be expected at first right? The next day during feeding time however George (the smallest of the three) mistook one of newly named Casper's front legs for a juicy worm and had a bit of a nibble! It didn't go down well with Casper who took off for cover and didn't come out again! Sharky and George just carried on eating.
The next day, I came back to find the curtain wide open with the sun shining directly onto the tank, the temperature at 25/26 degrees celcius and Casper floating tail end up...Disaster! I promptly pulled the curtains and put some water bottles in and the temperature came back down to 20 overnight. Casper however started acting strange, he started gagging as if he were throwing up and he was still floating. I moved him into a plastic box on the floor and kept him cool with just a few inches of water (so he could keep his feet on the floor) and some sand and pond weed for cover. He was still gagging alot and started secreting a slimey gooey mess out of his vent with black bits in!
...any ideas what it is?
Then I noticed his leg which got bitten had red streaks and what looked like white mucus all over it. ..also a few white spots apeared on his tail!
over the next few days it gradually got worse and he hadn't eaten at all!
He's been in the fridge for the last two days but the mucusy mess is still getting worse. I'm suspecting some sort of fungus but I really don't know what I'm dealing with. What should I do next? I hear alot of people talking about salt baths, will this help? If so, what king of salt do I use and what is the procedure?
Oh and I bought a water test kit and the water quality is terrible! The nitrite and nitrates are both very high. Although the ph is about 7.5/8 ish the ammonia is zero. I've performed a 30% water change and added some of this stuff at the advise of the aquarium center.
Sharky and George however are showing no signs of upset, just mooching about and eating like normal.
Is there anything I should have done? What should I do next?
This is where it all went wrong. His first night was fine, he seemed to settle in fine. He was slightly more skittish than the other two but that's to be expected at first right? The next day during feeding time however George (the smallest of the three) mistook one of newly named Casper's front legs for a juicy worm and had a bit of a nibble! It didn't go down well with Casper who took off for cover and didn't come out again! Sharky and George just carried on eating.
The next day, I came back to find the curtain wide open with the sun shining directly onto the tank, the temperature at 25/26 degrees celcius and Casper floating tail end up...Disaster! I promptly pulled the curtains and put some water bottles in and the temperature came back down to 20 overnight. Casper however started acting strange, he started gagging as if he were throwing up and he was still floating. I moved him into a plastic box on the floor and kept him cool with just a few inches of water (so he could keep his feet on the floor) and some sand and pond weed for cover. He was still gagging alot and started secreting a slimey gooey mess out of his vent with black bits in!
...any ideas what it is?
Then I noticed his leg which got bitten had red streaks and what looked like white mucus all over it. ..also a few white spots apeared on his tail!
over the next few days it gradually got worse and he hadn't eaten at all!
He's been in the fridge for the last two days but the mucusy mess is still getting worse. I'm suspecting some sort of fungus but I really don't know what I'm dealing with. What should I do next? I hear alot of people talking about salt baths, will this help? If so, what king of salt do I use and what is the procedure?
Oh and I bought a water test kit and the water quality is terrible! The nitrite and nitrates are both very high. Although the ph is about 7.5/8 ish the ammonia is zero. I've performed a 30% water change and added some of this stuff at the advise of the aquarium center.
Sharky and George however are showing no signs of upset, just mooching about and eating like normal.
Is there anything I should have done? What should I do next?
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