Possible fungus? please help.

[MarieKarma1311]

Hello everyone,

I just got back from a 5 day vacation and left my axolotls with family members while I was gone. The filter to my tank stopped working while I was gone and apparently no one was doing water changes to the tank. I arrived today with a brand new filter and began changing water and cleaning the tank when I started to notice that my Axolotls were looking quite sick. They all have a coating of white fuzzy looking fungus that is very short on their skin. My albino is looking blue ish and I am worried.

Should I do salt baths on them until they get better? My tank is 64° F at the moment. . Is it necessary to do fringing?

Here are a few photos of my albino, my wild types were a bit hard to get photos of.

 

[MarieKarma1311]

I meant to say fridging.

 

[MarieKarma1311]

Here is an updated photo of my albino today, she is looking much better since I've been home but the small fuzzy white coating is still on my Axolotls.

 

[aliya23kk]

I'd do a salt bath once or twice a day for a week or longer if it's still there. Fridging isn't necessary depending on the situation.
Is your axolotl eating properly?

 

[tipnatee]

Give your axie in to salt bath ASAP . How's axie slim coat? If you ever touch your axie and their slim stuck to your hand ? you need to to hurry. Like NOW!! And drop some almond leaf extract in or the actual leaf in their tank ASAP

 

[MarieKarma1311]

I'd do a salt bath once or twice a day for a week or longer if it's still there. Fridging isn't necessary depending on the situation.
Is your axolotl eating properly?

I am doing my first salt baths today, I will do them every 12 hours as the " salt bath guide" instructs. Hopefully this goes away within the week..

As for their appetite, My albino Storm, wild type Charles, and Rouge are all eating fine since I've gotten back. I've been feeding them blood worms Dailey since they eat those the easiest and will eat them the most. The poor little fellas were practically starved when I got home.. I'm not sure if they weren't eating or if they just weren't fed.. it breaks my heart to see them like this.

One of my wild types, Logan, is practically a walking skeleton and isn't eating much of anything. He will snap up a few blood worms but not a full belly's worth.

I am so sad that this happened while I was away visiting with family for a week.. Had I known they would be so neglected I never would have left

Here Is a photo of my 10 week old wild type axolotl Rouge in her salt bath this morning, you can see the white coating on her skin.

 

[MarieKarma1311]

Give your axie in to salt bath ASAP . How's axie slim coat? If you ever touch your axie and their slim stuck to your hand ? you need to to hurry. Like NOW!! And drop some almond leaf extract in or the actual leaf in their tank ASAP

I have already begun giving them their salt baths and will continue to do so until they are healthy again. As for the slime coat I will not touch my axolotls in fear of harming their coating if they do have any left. I do not like to handle my axolotls by hand.

 

[aliya23kk]

I am doing my first salt baths today, I will do them every 12 hours as the " salt bath guide" instructs. Hopefully this goes away within the week..

As for their appetite, My albino Storm, wild type Charles, and Rouge are all eating fine since I've gotten back. I've been feeding them blood worms Dailey since they eat those the easiest and will eat them the most. The poor little fellas were practically starved when I got home.. I'm not sure if they weren't eating or if they just weren't fed.. it breaks my heart to see them like this.

One of my wild types, Logan, is practically a walking skeleton and isn't eating much of anything. He will snap up a few blood worms but not a full belly's worth.

I am so sad that this happened while I was away visiting with family for a week.. Had I known they would be so neglected I never would have left

Here Is a photo of my 10 week old wild type axolotl Rouge in her salt bath this morning, you can see the white coating on her skin.

I'd suggest dropping some blood worms right on top or right in front of his mouth to try and get him to eat.

 

[MarieKarma1311]

I did this today with no luck, so I removed him from the tank and placed him into a 3 gallon bucket all by himself and left a cube of worms in the bucket with him. . He won't touch them and stopped trying to snap them up.

I'm getting very worried, he is stick thin and looks just terrible. He's to small to force feed. . And other ideas?

 

[aliya23kk]

I'd fridge him to slow down his metabolism and it will give you time to figure out what's wrong and put together a game plan.

He could be compacted so I'd suggest fridging him to get that possibility out of the way.

 

[MarieKarma1311]

okay I will go stick him in the fridge now.

 

[MarieKarma1311]

My albino Storm is looking so much better today. It's been about two and a half days since I got home and she's only on her second salt bath and already I am amazed with her improvement. Here are some photos of her in her salt bath this evening.

 

[aliya23kk]

I'm glad shes doing better!

 

[MarieKarma1311]

As am I, I have also begun to notice a slight improvement in the baby axolotl, the fungus coating has definitely thinned out quite a bit.

Logan is still looking pretty sickly, he has lost all his gills, I can see fungus on the under side of what's left of his gills and a slight coating all over his body. I'm about to try and feed him again. . Wish me luck!

Here is a photo of Logan during his salt bath today. . Poor guy.

 

[aliya23kk]

Sometimes when there is a little patch of fungus you can that a Q-Tip and very, very lightly and gently try and take a some off.

 

[MarieKarma1311]

It has been just over a week now and my axolotls are looking much better. My albino storm is back to a healthy weight and I don't see any more fungus on her. My biggest wild type, Charles, is looking quite healthy, my smallest wild type, Rouge, is back to her healthy weight and nearly all the fungus is gone ( she had the second to worst case of it ) And my other wild type Logan is officially eating again!

Logan isn't eating as much as he used to but each day I've managed to get him to eat approximately half a frozen blood worm cube. He is maintaining he weight instead of loosing it and I have faith that he might make it.

What concerns me now is that I have been noticing what I believe is his slime coating coming off of his body. I managed to get a photo of it today. There has been a chunk of this slime like residue in his water every day for the last 5 days that I've noticed while cleaning out his water. This is the first time I've actually seen it come off his body, as I had previously thought it was fecal matter.

Should I be concerned? What can I do to help other than keeping his water clean, fresh, and cold? I am still giving him a salt bath once every other day just to be on the safe side.

 

[Wysper]

I may be wrong, and I seriously hope I am.... but are you sure Logan is an Axolotl?

It looks like he has lost his gill stalks, not just the gills... and the fin down his back and tail.

 

[MarieKarma1311]

I'm positive that he is, I saw both his parents first hand in their breeder tank, the store didn't sell salamanders, and his two siblings are growing like normal axolotls.

I believe that his gills are gone due to fungus and salt baths, and he lost his tail and fins when he stopped eating. .

unless there is some seriously strange mutations going on with him I'm inclined to believe he's just very sick.

 

[Wysper]

I'm sorry. Like I said, I'm new to Axies, so don't know much myself.

I really hope he gets better and is ok.

 

[Niels D]

The picture isn't very clear, but if you see retreating fins/crest/gills and eyelids then it's a "morphed" axolotl. Especially the eyelids are a good indication.