Bleeding axl

[sabine]

our axl has been off his food for 3 weeks now. A water test after one week showed too much ammonia. PH was ok. I tried to remedy it with ammonia Block and zaelite in the filter. This morning he was bleeding from the throat. A further water test showed a high acidity level and still high ammonia. A pet shop owner recommended a complete clean out of the tank (he gave me a bucket of aquarium water to start me off) and Melafix. Later today axl has been spewing A brownish(bloody?) slime. HELP!!!

 

[danny]

I think the first thing you should do is fill a small container with tap water and dechlorise it.
Then put your axie in there and put him in the fridge for a while..as long as you refresh the water there daily (keep an extra bottle of dechlorined water in the fridge) you can keep your axie there for as long as needed.
In that time you can fix your tank.. but getting the axie out of there is priority nr 1.

 

[kapo]

How long have you had your tank running? You should avoid using chemicals, like ammolock, ph up or down as these are only temporary fixes.

Regarding the melafix, how much did you use and did you add it straight to your tank? You have to be careful how much/what fish medicine can be used as some can be quite toxic to your axie. I know some people have used melafix but the dosage is much lower than recommended for fish.

How high, what figure was your acidity level? Axies can tolerate pH from 6.8 up to 8.0, though if the ammonia is high and pH is about 8.0 or higher than I think it may be even more toxic than usual.

The ammonia levels could have been lowered to safer levels by doing daily 20-30% waterchanges.

How high is your tank temperature?

Also, if you've cleaned out your tank completely, you can cycle your tank without the petshop water. My personal opinion I never use petshop water, I wouldn't want parasites or other nasties transferring anything to my axies!