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Illness/Sickness: Losing limbs for no reason?

e23ho

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Nov 5, 2010
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Hi folks,

One of my male leucis is going through a bit of a rough time. I noticed him in a log yesterday, and when my boyfriend wiggled his finger in front of him he repeatedly 'wobbled' peaked his head out to show interest in the worm-like finger but then backed right up again. This is unlikely - they usually respond to the 'worm finger' by chasing it around the tank and attacking it. He stayed in his log the rest of the evening.

Today I saw him outside of the log and I noticed half of his front left leg is gone (see images 5 and 7) - I watch them regularly and I never noticed this or any sign of injury before - and the skin on his front right leg looks pinched and the blood vessels irritated (see images 1, 2, and 8). They don't really look like attacks and I've only ever had one other injury in my tank before on a female wild type, where her front leg skin looks like it peeled down and it healed beautifully in a matter of days (see "Pepper injury").

What could be going on? There is nothing with any kind of edge in the tank except for a rectangular slate tile which is tucked into the corner of the tank on two sides and surrounded by round river rocks on the other two. The only thing I can think of is several months ago (August) I left my axies with the Ecology Lab at my University while I went away and one of the student staff cleaning the tank didn't notice that she had broken the thermometer in the water until a week later.... so there was mercury in the water for some time.

However, four of my six axies were in that tank as well (although he was always the runt of the group and was quite thin when I got him back because they weren't fed enough for him to compete well) and the other three are thriving (although one did have that injury I mentioned earlier, now healed).

Any ideas? My spare tank is set up for my minnow fry and I can't add a 4th tank so I'm not sure if I should separate him, salt bathe him (I'm concerned the leg might still be a bit open so I've avoided this), fridge him, or what... he's acting completely normal, just learning to move around without a leg on the front left, and is eating, going up at normal intervals for air, interacting with the others fine... so I don't know if I should just monitor and let it be or if this calls for immediate attention?

Thanks!
Elaine

p.s. his gills have been like that since shortly after the mercury incident - he shed a lot of his skin and filaments, apparently grew some back, but that left side has been equally stumpy as it is in the photos and he gets on just fine. Poor guy is having a rough life for some unknown reason - the rest are doing great!
 

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Last edited:

Kaysie

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Mercury is a nasty chemical and is known for lingering effects. It may be playing a role.

I'm not a chemist, so I can't say for sure. Hopefully someone chimes in.
 
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