Illness/Sickness: Axolotls tail coming off

[Marceline]

Please help.

We recently moved to a new apartment. I generally removed all of the tank water and placed my axolotl in a container. We are currently in winter so all of the water is very cold. I cleaned his entire tank and added new water and started preparing it. While he was in the container I saw his tail started lifting in the air. I did some research and I saw it could be constipation or air bubbles. I wasn't too worried seeing that he had a big poop. When I put him in his tank I saw that his tail wasn't going down. And today when I checked on him I saw pieces of the translucent skin on the bottom of his tail is coming off. He seems fine and is swimming and eager to eat. His gills isn't facing forward and the tip of his tail isn't bent. I added some prime as well as stability into the water. He also pooped last night. His water is nice and cold and while he was in the container I treated the water he was in with prime to help with ammonia, etc.

See photos.

 

[Hayleyy]

Have you been able to test the water for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate?

 

[GemCityAxolotls]

Have you saved any of his old water from before the move? Filter media? Substrate? If you added all new everything and cleaned the tank, it’s possible you may have crashed your cycle by removing all the beneficial bacteria. Test your water ASAP. And in the meantime I’d suggest keeping him in a Rubbermaid container with daily water changes and Indian Almond Leaf. It looks like ammonia burn. The IAL will help soothe while he recovers.

 

[Marceline]

I did keep some of his old water. I think he might have gotten the burn in his old water seeing that I had to keep him in there for some time. His tail is regenerating and no further damage has been done.

 

[Marceline]

:happy:His tail is also flat now so I really suspect the old water was the problem.