Axolotls unhappy after tank clean

[piaalexa]

Hi all,

My axolotls are showing signs of irritation after a tank clean. They are scratching their hills and it appears some skin is coming off in places. The thing is I checked the water parameters and even left the water to dechlorinate for over two days beforehand (and tested it). can anyone help me fix this?

 

[piaalexa]

Here is a pic

 

[michael]

How did you clean the tank? Was biological medium rinsed in aquarium or dechlorinated water? I don't know about your country but in the U.S. most places used chlorina and chloramine in municipal water. Sitting the water out does not remove chloramine. Most dechlorinators remove chlorine and chloramine.

You need to determine what caused the problem and correct the water quality. You also need to address the skin problems the axolotl is having. My go to medicine is Furan 2.

 

[piaalexa]

Oops I see the pic is upside down...

Well I have done this to the water before and not had a problem until now. Maybe the water quality has changed since I last changed the tank so I will go get it checked out. As for the skin it was not like this until I cleaned the tank today. And the gill scratching began at the same time as well. Weirdly the wild type ones in the same tank seem to be doing better...

 

[piaalexa]

Update: I used dechlorinator on some extra water I had sitting in buckets and replaced half the water in the tank with it. This seems to have worked because they are looking much more relaxed and not irritated. As for the broken skin, I think her bumping into stuff in the tank while scratching at her gills caused it...shame I feel really bad about that

But they are at least looking a lot happier now - I will definitely not forget to use the dechlorinator again!