Burnt and very sick Axle

Axle seemed to fine, he had a big appetite, feeding him frozen blood worm or axolotle pellets with some frozen prawn. the only thing was he sometimes lay slightly to the left side. Then the other night he behaved really strangely trying to get out of the water looking quite stressed! He then lay vertically with his head down I touched him and he swam to the correct position, I gave him a 30% water change. was about to take him to the vet and the next day I thought he was dead!covered in white, on his eyes and everything!I took him to his exotic vet and for some reason his water had turned very acid and vet thinks he's been burnt so He is now having daily antibiotic baths and am just trying to support him while he regenerates.But he still looks sressed like he wants to get out - the ph is 7.2 and although all the white has come off, except for his eyes there are now these strange blobs of gel mucusy stuff with little brown specks - I have removed them from the tank! What are these? His skin looks better but he looks very uncomfortable. I do regular water changes so don't know how it got so acidic? We had a big dust storm in sydney the other day - he has a glass cover but not completely coverd so dust could have got in - would that make the ph acid?Anyone have any suggestions what could be wrong, could it be something else on top of him being burnt?will take him back to vet but its the weekend and he's not around.Very worried about him so any help would be great!

The blobs in the water may be shed skin, or mucous that he's secreted to protect his skin. Keep it cleaned out so it doesn't foul the water.

I suppose it's possible that the dust storm did something to the water chemistry, I don't know. Did you find the problem with the acidic water by testing it, or was the vet speculating that acid was the cause?

If you have soft water (low mineral content), your aquarium water will always gradually become acidic, and water changes might not be enough to keep it pH balanced. Any time something decays (leftover food, poo, dead plants, gunk in the filter), acid is produced. There are a couple of ways to combat this, such as adding a bit of shell grit or limestone to raise the pH slightly, or adding a mineral-containing product such as "RO Right". The best thing you can do is to test the pH regularly, now that you know this is a problem.

thankyou for that advice, I had tested the water to see it was so acidic. Why do you think he looks like he wants to still get out of the tank? do you think its just him being generally very uncomfortable because he was burnt, is there anything I can do to make him less agitated?

To be sure test all your water parameters - Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. In my opinion, axies tend to get chemical burns moreso from toxic ammonia. Axies can tolerate quite a large range of pH so unless the pH is way extreme, it is much less likely to be the cause. Small frequent water changes will greatly help in this aspect.

For sudden overnight strong reactions that result in skin shedding or mucus production, it is very highly likely due to external contaminant. These can be anything from the following.

1 - Aerosols - Insecticides, perfumes, hairspray etc.
2 - Diffuser plug in air fresheners or mosquito repellent
3 - Toxic dust

If your tank is uncovered and potentially been exposed to any chemicals, it might be a good idea to perform water changes and use good zeolite and activated carbon granules to help remove the contaminant.

You should be fridging your axie concurrently. Aim for three weeks minimum.

Good luck with your axie Kasper! My axie's name is Kasper

Very scary about the dust. Especially since we've been BREATHING IT IN!!!!!!!!!!