2 of my 5 have problems.......

[rita]

2 of my 5 axies have problems.... Both of my black females actually.....
The older of the two, Desdamona, has had white fungus patches on her for the past yearish. It doesn't seem to be making her sick, or affecting her in any way. It also hasn't spread to any of the others in the tank. should I do something about it before I try to breed her??
The younger of the two, Kate, seems to be having trouble sinking, and floats with the top of her head and part of her dorsal ridge out of the water. It is not, however, her tail or rear end that floats most on the rare occasions that she is on the bottom. What's wrong with her and what should I do??

 

[rheann]

Welcome to the Forum Rita

About your Axolotl with the Fungus. She needs to be taken out of the tank and separated from the others in a small container filled with de-chlorinated water and salt baths. Also, you need to monitor your water quality. A tank must cycle three weeks at the least before putting any Axolotls in the water, or this will lead to problems, and even death for your Axolotls. 20% water changes need to be done once a week and the sand vacuumed with a siphon to keep the water clean. Only vacuum the very top layer of sand, as there is good bacteria that live in the substrate that will provide oxygen and they eat waste. The water quality levels should read ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate a low reading. water temperatures need to be around 17 degrees Celsius, Axolotl will stress with warmer temps, to keep the Axolotls cool, use frozen water bottles and regulate them to keep the temp cool, or you can invest in a cooling system for aquariums, or use a fan over the tank, and or the Air conditioning on also helps a lot. Your Axolotls won't be ready to breed until they are around a year old, but it is better to wait until they are 18 months old. Size doesn't always determine age, as Axolotls vary on growth rate. If you have very small gravel in your tank, switch to sand, and wash the sand very well before you put it in the tank. Keep the filter running when you put the sand in, as it will help clear out any sand dust that you were unable to remove. Pre-cycled tanks are so very important. I learned all of this information by just constantly reading posts, and posting threads when I needed advise. It is very simple once you get the hang of it. As for your Axolotl that is floating, it could be that she is either trying to get out of the tank because the water quality is hurting her, or she may have a bad case of gas, or something else, or it could be that she is just going up for gulps of air, which Axolotls do regularly. I have three, they all do this, and all Axies do this. But if it isn't any of these things I mentioned, hopefully someone on this forum can help you further. If you don't know how to test your water, you can either get a test kit from the pet store, or ask your local pet store to test your water for you. Most will do it for free, or they will charge a small fee. I hope this info helps.

 

[anne-marie]

Rita, can you post a pic of Desdamona? I've never heard of white fungus patches hanging around for a year and not spreading - maybe someone else has?? So it sounds like it may not be fungus?

With Kate, not being able to touch the ground is supposed to be quite stressful for axies, so take her out of the tank, leave her overnight in shallow fresh, dechlorinated water so she can work out any air bubbles she may have.

Have you checked the water quality? Can you post the results of pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? What is the water temp? How often do you feed and has Kate been eating? Lots of questions I know, but they need to be answered

(Message edited by waltona on July 23, 2005)

 

[rita]

I'll try to get a pic of Desdamona soon. I'm only guessing that it's a fungus, but I don't really know, it just looks like a fungus. Desdamona's about 2 and 1/2 years old now, fully grown, and eats anyting you put infront of her.
As for Kate, I saw some advise about putting floating axie's in the fridge in a shallow container for a day or so, so I tried that, and she seems to be doing okay at the moment. I feed all of my axies a couple of times a week, and they all eat quite happily out of my hands, so she's definately still eating. I figured out that Kate got the bad case of gas from a bacteria that was apparently being carried by an earthworm. The others were lucky that the other worms didn't carry the bacteria, I guess.
I've checked the water in the tank a couple of times, and the only problem was that the Ph was a little on the acidic side, but I've since fixed that. The water is about 18 degrees.
I've been keeping Axie's for quite a while now, and my mum had them before me, so I keep the water changed and in summer have ice blocks constantly in the tank. I'm pretty sure I've been doing most things right.

 

[rita]

These are pictures of parts of Desdamona, where you can see the white fungussy spots. The digital camera has gone for a walk, so I had to use my webcam, and as you can see, the picture quality is <font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font>! I'll try to figure out where the camera's gone, and take some better pics soon.

<font color="ff0000">Edited to show the photo</font>

(Message edited by apples on July 30, 2005)

 

[anne-marie]

Okay, I've never seen fungus, but that certainly looks like I'd imagine it.

Start with the salt baths, as Rheann suggested.
2 teaspoons to 2 litres of water, fully dissolved. Do it twice a day for 10 mins.
Keep her isolated in the meantime, fridge if necessary. Keep cold water at fridge temp on hand for the salt bathing if you are going to keep her in the fridge.

 

[rita]

I'll try the salt baths, though she's always been in the same tank as the others, and the fungus has never spread to any of the others, so I'll probably just keep her with the rest. Also, leaving my poor fish in the fridge makes me nervous that they'll suffocate(even though I know this won't happen). lols
Thanks though.

 

[lisa]

Those arent the best photos. and chance of a better one? Can you brush away the white stuff with your fingertip? If so it's probably fungus.
But if the white bits are solid, then it could be a more un-common problem.
I had a similar problem on my first axie. Before I found this forum, I was feeding beef heart. The fat from the beef heart couldn't be digested and so it became "fat spots" on the surface of my axie.
What do you feed?

 

[rita]

Well, it's not fat spots, and it can't be rubbed off. I feed my axies meal worms, earth worms, feeder fish and crickets. All 5 of them are fed the same thing at the same time, and none of the others have these spots.
We're getting a new digital camera within the next month, so I'll get new pics up soon.

(Message edited by Iron_Daughter on August 01, 2005)