Illness/Sickness: Can anyone tell me what's wrong with my baby?

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Lorri Wilson

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Hi all, i'm hoping i can get some help here for Angel, we've had him for about 2 years now and up until 2 weeks ago he used to look like a bigger version of Jareth here (same colouring):
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but now he is changing colour, he hasn't eaten for 10 days, a week ago he starting having bursts of swimming around like crazy and looking like he was trying to climb up the sides of the tank to get out of the water, we asked the man who runs a local aquarium shop and he said he might be metamorphosing and we should put him in shallower water with something for him to climb on. He does seem more peaceful (no more thrashing around the water, trying to climb out) but he still won't eat and his skin seems more transparent, i never used to be able to see his veins so clearly before. Here's how he looks now (sorry for the poor lighting, we're trying to keep in as low light as possible):
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What are your water parameters - reading for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and temp? Is your tank fully cycled?

Visible veins and thrashing about are classic signs of a water quality issue. I very much doubt that your axie is morphing - it's incredibly rare.
 
I understand lowering the water some but that is REALLY low, I'm sure you're just doing what the guy at the aquarium shop told you to do but think about the fact that he's still peeing and pooping in that tiny amount of water...the veins and stuff are most likely due to poor water quality which is understandable as it would be really hard to keep good water quality with such little water (people, myself included, have trouble keeping good quality in 20 gallons and I don't know how big that tank is but that looks like less than 5 gallons of water..). I strongly suggest checking the water quality with a liquid test kit and raising the level at least a little bit but honestly without any added hormones the chances of him morphing are practically 0..

Axies do change color as they age so I wouldn't be too worried about his color as I would the fact that you can see his veins so clearly (I thought I got 2 albinos as juveniles but now one has ended up a melanoid golden albino over the course of 4-5 months, albinos can also turn more yellow as they get older which seems like a possibility of what could have happened to your guy there)
 
Thank you guys, he didn't mention anything about ph levels or anything like that so i'll go buy a test kit today. since we lowered the water level i have been doing a water change everyday with prepared water i've been keeping in the fridge, i've just woken up this morning so i'm about to do another change and i'll put more water in this time. I'll go down and buy the kit and do the test, i'll keep you posted :happy:
 
oh and what about him not eating, today will the 11th day without food if he doesn't eat at feed time tonight, is there a point when i should try to force feed him, i read the sticky about that but i really don't want to have to as it doesn't sound pleasant for them at all.
 
Try offering him something different for food. Does he eat pellets usually? Maybe offer some frozen blood worms or live red worms or earthworms (cut or whole depending on size). Remove uneaten food after about 2-3 hours. Keep water clean and fresh, and at a constant cool room temperature. You don't need to keep his water change water in the fridge... that will probably cause stressful temp fluctuations when added to his tank. And yes, raise water level too.
Good luck!
 
ok, i've tested all the levels in the main tank and in the small tank we moved him to when he started to seem unwell, they are all fine except the ammonia in the 'sick' tank is 0.50. So since we only moved him to a small tank because the aquarium guy said he may be morphing, which it seems he isn't, should we just put him back into the bigger tank and see how he goes in there again? Sorry for all the questions, i just really don't want to lose him and want to do whatever i can to help him. :happy:
 
Bette said:
Try offering him something different for food. Does he eat pellets usually? Maybe offer some frozen blood worms or live red worms or earthworms (cut or whole depending on size). Remove uneaten food after about 2-3 hours. Keep water clean and fresh, and at a constant cool room temperature. You don't need to keep his water change water in the fridge... that will probably cause stressful temp fluctuations when added to his tank. And yes, raise water level too.
Good luck!
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the people we got them from fed them pellets, but as soon as we got them we have hand fed them every second night, either frozen blood worms or heart and prawn, he usually eats an earthworm every now and then but she just spits them out.
 
So your ammonia is too high, and it sounds like your tank isn't cycled yet - and the small amount of water means waste is building up quickly.

I would put him back in your main tank if its cycled, and add some tea or almond leaves to the tank to sooth him. Change the water regularly and keep an eye on your parameters.
 
I don't have too much experience with ammonia burns (my two did get ammonia burns but not too bad, only on their tails) but from what I understand ammonia burns all over the body make the axies very red and can cause their veins to look like your guy so from my understanding it seems like the best course of action would probably be to keep him in the sick tank, offer different types of food and make sure the water is really clean and cool (maybe cooler than normal if you can do that without too much fluctuation, maybe put a wet towel over the top and blow a fan at the tank?) and I agree with antiejude it doesn't seem like his condition is contagious so putting him back into the main tank should be fine, but definitely keep an eye on the parameters
 
Thanks for the advice all, i put him back in the main tank as the water parameters there are spot on and it's fully cycled, he seems to be doing better, his redness and the visibility of his veins has reduced, he still hasn't eaten but i'm going to keep offering him each different food each day and hope he snaps something up :happy:
 
Update and advice needed. Angel seemed to be doing a lot better after i put him back in the main tank, he was moving around as he did before, his skin was looking healthier. He still wouldn't eat though and unfortunately when i got up this morning he had passed during the night. Do i need to clean out the tank, will he have contaminated the water. I already did the partial water change as today was the day for it and i was just going through the motions. Will my other 2 be alright still in the tank, i have no other fully cycled tank so no where else for them to go.
 
I'm sorry to hear that Lorri :(
If your other two seem fine, then I would just leave well enough alone. Keep up on the WCs as you have in order to keep the water quality impeccable.
 
So very sorry for your loss. I did read something on another post recently about a problem with axies dying in Australia due to some genetic condition. (Apparently a large breeder here continued breeding with these defective axies for some time, but had now stopped doing so.) The symptoms were that sometime between one and two years of age, the axies stop eating and simply die. The post suggested it was something to do with the heart. Does anybody know anything about this and is it in fact true? I presume in a country like Australia, the potential for in-breeding would be relatively high.
 
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