Adopted Axie: a few questions

[Dawn]

Hi all,

As you may be aware I am now the proud owner of Luce's axie. He's a magnificent boy of around 12ins. Apparently his gills had been feasted upon by her loach - whats the best thing to do for this? Should I be doing anything in particular or just let nature take its course? Also he has a light patch on his forehead, Luce has assured me its been there for a long time though.

Oh and lastly he never seems to stretch out his tail straight -is that just from the stress of the move do you think?

Sorry about the photo quality - blasted camera phone

 

[axygirl20]

HOpefully the gills should recouperate (sorry cant spell) by themselves, it wouldnt hurt to get an anti-bacterial/fungal treatment to help during the healing process. The tail my be from stress but unsure as to the light patch is it a fungal infection coming on?

 

[gr33neyes]

If the axolotl is healthy then you don't need to carry out any anti bacterial / fungal treatments. The gills will regrow but may not regrow back to their original fullness. The patch on its head is most probably a natural marking. As for the tail just give him some time to settle in, its stressful moving house!
Good luck.

 

[Dawn]

Thanks so much

I'm still working out what is normal behaviour for him, he's very unsure at the moment. Can't wait to see him come out of himself a bit!

 

[Cake]

It probably wouldn't hurt to treat it's water with a slime/stress coat. I think it would be a good idea to put it in a tank with a low water level and just see how it's gills turn out..? It may not matter as it would normally just swim to the surface to gulp air but shallow water to begin with might be an idea.

 

[Kaysie]

Stress/slime coat doesn't necessarily have any benefit. It adds nutrients to the water, which can cause water quality issues.

 

[ptsorange]

Your axie is 12 inches? wow, that seems big

Hi all,

As you may be aware I am now the proud owner of Luce's axie. He's a magnificent boy of around 12ins. Apparently his gills had been feasted upon by her loach - whats the best thing to do for this? Should I be doing anything in particular or just let nature take its course? Also he has a light patch on his forehead, Luce has assured me its been there for a long time though.

Oh and lastly he never seems to stretch out his tail straight -is that just from the stress of the move do you think?

Sorry about the photo quality - blasted camera phone

 

[Cake]

Stress/slime coat doesn't necessarily have any benefit. It adds nutrients to the water, which can cause water quality issues.

Oh ok, I was just referring to a bottle I have of stress/slime coat which says to use whenever animals are 'damaged by injury or disease' etc... but I don't think they had axolotls in mind when they made the stuff. Probably shouldn't waste money on it as it may not make a difference but like I said, it probably wouldn't hurt to treat it's water with it if you happen to have any...?

 

[digger]

Hi, if i were you i would just pop him in a nice cool dark place and leave to settle down.
Make sure he has plenty of places to hide and he should settle fine.

 

[Kaysie]

it probably wouldn't hurt to treat it's water with it if you happen to have any...?

The main ingredient of stress coat is aloe vera. As far as I'm aware, aloe has no proven effect at healing wounds in amphibians (although in humans, it does soothe burns). It WILL add nutrients to the tank. If you are using it in a small bowl (rather than a cycled tank), this can quickly lead to a buildup of too much nutrients and subsequent poisoning. So it can hurt, and it's not necessary. In the amphib world, less is more. The less gunk you put in your tank, the better off you'll be.

 

[Dawn]

Your axie is 12 inches? wow, that seems big

haha tell me about it! I must admit I am nervous about introducing him to mine (only 7/8in pups - see 'mixing sizes' thread in free for all forum) but I have high hopes. I don't know if mine can somehow sense him (and have 'inflated' accordingly, or if now I've seen what a BIG boy looks like I can finally tell but I can suddenly see one of my goldies is a boy too


Thanks so much for all the advice guys, its currently very cold in London so I've just got them all in tupperware in an unheated room (therm says air temp is 11 degrees) and hes all covered over.
He did take a small worm yesterday but has turned his nose up ever since. Ooh and his tail is now straight!

I'll try and get more pics of his progress and film the introduction to the goldies!

 

[coichards]

I would probably hold of putting him with the others until he is well on the way to recovering, the less stressed he is the better.



Good luck!

 

[Cake]

The main ingredient of stress coat is aloe vera. As far as I'm aware, aloe has no proven effect at healing wounds in amphibians (although in humans, it does soothe burns). It WILL add nutrients to the tank. If you are using it in a small bowl (rather than a cycled tank), this can quickly lead to a buildup of too much nutrients and subsequent poisoning. So it can hurt, and it's not necessary. In the amphib world, less is more. The less gunk you put in your tank, the better off you'll be.

Interesting discussion. This is kind of off topic but I have just a few more questions.

When you say nutrients, did you mean the aloe or other chemicals in the product? How do we know these nutrients build up?

Is fish and amphibian tissue similar?(i've probably stated this wrong) I wanted to know if there have been any conclusive studies and apparently some independant studies concluded that stress coat is harmless....?

The effectiveness of Stress Coat with Aloe Vera has been proven by independent studies conducted at the University of Georgia, School of Veterinary Medicine. Researchers found that Stress Coat helped heal wounds and speed tissue regrowth. Dr John Gratzek summarizes the results: "Personally, I am satisfied with the results since my initial thoughts were skeptical to say the least. These definite statements can be made without equivocation: Stress Coat in no way harms aquarium fish, alters pH, or affects the biological filter. No ammonia or nitrite was detected in the test aquariums. The results indicated that the Stress Coat formula reduced the wound size compared to untreated fish tissue." Aloe Vera is high in mucopolysaccharides, an essential component of many tissues and believed to help in the healing process. The glycoproteins Aloctin A and Aloctin B are also present and identified as the probable tissue-healers.

I've used stress coat quite a lot now when doing water changes to remove any heavy metals from the water and have not observed any ill effects yet. I just want to know as I don't want to find out the stuff is harming them.

thanks.

 

[Kaysie]

I don't think it's HARMFUL, but it's usually not necessary. Especially with amphibian's amazing regenerative properties. The study you cited is interesting, and I'll have to read more into it. But it doesn't make any mention of nitrates, which are toxic in large concentrations. But the aloe itself will break down (I assume into ammonia, but I don't know for sure). This can be bad in an uncycled tank, or one that already has a high bioload.

With tanks, the more 'stuff' you put into them, the more chances you have of things going wrong. I treat my water with half doses of a simple dechlorinator. If your water is fit for human consumption, it's probably just fine for axolotls (other than chlorine). You can usually contact your local municipal water treatment center and they can give you a water quality report that will tell you exactly what's in your water.

 

[Dawn]

I'm not sure whether or not to start a new thread on this but I have spotted a couple of problems with the new guy.

Firstly he has a dark patch on his tail and a similiar one on his cheek. Definitely not natural markings. Almost look like what I'd imagine cigarette burn scars to look like on an axie.

Secondly, behind his stubby gills, he has what looks like a looped bloodworm hanging out - is it a parasite? Or a really deformed fillament?

Looking forward to your advice

 

[Jacquie]

Hi Dawn,

I'm not sure whether or not to start a new thread on this but I have spotted a couple of problems with the new guy

Firstly he has a dark patch on his tail and a similiar one on his cheek. Definitely not natural markings. Almost look like what I'd imagine cigarette burn scars to look like on an axie.

Could you post some pictures of the patches?

Secondly, behind his stubby gills, he has what looks like a looped bloodworm hanging out - is it a parasite? Or a really deformed fillament?

Looking forward to your advice

Do you feed the axolotls bloodworm at all? Axolotls have a flap behind the gills where sometimes food can be expelled - looks fairly revolting - but is perfectly normal and harmless.

 

[Dawn]

I will try and get some clear pics tonight.

He has only eaten one earth worm since I've had him (nearly one week) but apparently his diet was blood worms and algae wafers before that.
It does look very much like a blood worm but its been there at least since I've had him and its still red even now (they go brown fairly quickly right?). Is it worth giving it a tug?

 

[Dawn]

Its not the wormy thing shown on the left gills here - thats actually an atrophied gill stalk!

I will definitely try and get pics later.

 

[Jacquie]

I will try and get some clear pics tonight.

He has only eaten one earth worm since I've had him (nearly one week) but apparently his diet was blood worms and algae wafers before that.
It does look very much like a blood worm but its been there at least since I've had him and its still red even now (they go brown fairly quickly right?). Is it worth giving it a tug?

Well, so much for that theory. :happy:

It may be a gill that's regrown wrong or something else. If you could take a picture of this thing as well that would be great.

 

[Dawn]

Sorry for the delay - I was waiting to borrow a proper camera

Here is the tail

Here is the thing behind the gill

and some other pics. I've realised his eyes have become cloudy. The water is fine - could it be sloughing?

the dark patch on the cheek below