EasternRomioi3
Active member
Hi guys, so looking back about a month now, my axolotl has had gill fungus. She had a clump here, it fell off, a clump there, it fell off, she never has more than one clump at a time and then it falls off and another replaces it in a different spot. I don't know what to do. We gave her a salt bath on Wednesday with 2 teaspoons of aquarium salt, bathed for 10 minutes. She was fine when I pulled her out and she ate a worm without any hesitation. My mom has been doing as much research as she can, as a retired vet, she has access to somethings but she thinks we need to do 3 teaspoons of salt, and 15 minutes. We read a lot of stuff on the forums and in what little her textbooks give about amphibians. It was super hard to do her salt bath today. She did not take it well, either 3 teaspoons is too much or 15 minutes is too long. She refused to eat for me. Even when her tank cycle was destroyed and she had a nitrite spike, she would still eat a worm.
My mom says the number 1 cause of this fungus is the water quality, including the temp. Her want averages 66 degrees, and can get up to 68 degrees when we're asleep. Our house has no air conditioning and my parent run the heat constantly. I use ice packs and I float them in zip lock bags with a string on them as a tether, so they don't drift around the surface or sink. I use frozen water bottles too. She has two little desktop fans that run constantly over her water. This has been the hottest year my city has had since 2012, it was 80 degrees out today when it should have been like 51. Like, it snows in May in my area. So I don't know what's with the heat.
My axolotl is in a 20 gallon long. She originally had a 10 gallon tank. She has a dark sand, ultra fine, substrate. 2 pieces of drift wood, a rock that many, many years ago belonged to our long departed snapping turtle. She has 2 sponge filters, and some plastic plants. Her tank is fully cycled but somehow I still have like .25 ammonia and always have at least 40 nitrates, sometimes 80, or above, and I do a water change and it barely effects anything. I can do a 50% water change and then the next day, the stats are the same. What am I doing wrong? Why does she still have a teeny bit of ammonia and high nitrates? Her nitrites are perfectly 0. On days I do a water change and then check, she has 0 ammonia but if I do it in 2 days, .25 ammonia, already. She has no skin burns or irritations.
I feel her 3 little pellets every other day and usually a worm twice a week, sometimes more. I gave her two on Wednesday for tolerating her first salt bath fine. She did not tolerate it well today and refused the worm. I am very upset. I do not know what to do. If I do nothing, she has gill fungus, and that can't be good. If I try to cure it, I hurt her and that can't be good either.
I am open to suggestions. But I do have some generalized questions that, if you read this, you'll have an informed opinion on and thus, be able to answer.
1, would moving her and 1 of her filters into her old 10 gallon tank improve her quality of life? It would be easier to cool 10 gallons then the 20 she has now but she would lose half her space.
2, should I even have a substrate at this point? Could it be causing any issues?
3, are salt baths the way to go with curing this fungus? Or should I just take her to a vet?
Please help. I don't want a sick pet. I am trying to start my new job but I haven't slept in 2 days and probably gonna end up quitting. There are other reasons as to why, two major ones that are entirely work related, but they want me to working a ton of long shifts, away from my sick pet and all I am doing is worrying. I'm tired, I'm gonna go play Skyrim now or draw, I don't know.
My mom says the number 1 cause of this fungus is the water quality, including the temp. Her want averages 66 degrees, and can get up to 68 degrees when we're asleep. Our house has no air conditioning and my parent run the heat constantly. I use ice packs and I float them in zip lock bags with a string on them as a tether, so they don't drift around the surface or sink. I use frozen water bottles too. She has two little desktop fans that run constantly over her water. This has been the hottest year my city has had since 2012, it was 80 degrees out today when it should have been like 51. Like, it snows in May in my area. So I don't know what's with the heat.
My axolotl is in a 20 gallon long. She originally had a 10 gallon tank. She has a dark sand, ultra fine, substrate. 2 pieces of drift wood, a rock that many, many years ago belonged to our long departed snapping turtle. She has 2 sponge filters, and some plastic plants. Her tank is fully cycled but somehow I still have like .25 ammonia and always have at least 40 nitrates, sometimes 80, or above, and I do a water change and it barely effects anything. I can do a 50% water change and then the next day, the stats are the same. What am I doing wrong? Why does she still have a teeny bit of ammonia and high nitrates? Her nitrites are perfectly 0. On days I do a water change and then check, she has 0 ammonia but if I do it in 2 days, .25 ammonia, already. She has no skin burns or irritations.
I feel her 3 little pellets every other day and usually a worm twice a week, sometimes more. I gave her two on Wednesday for tolerating her first salt bath fine. She did not tolerate it well today and refused the worm. I am very upset. I do not know what to do. If I do nothing, she has gill fungus, and that can't be good. If I try to cure it, I hurt her and that can't be good either.
I am open to suggestions. But I do have some generalized questions that, if you read this, you'll have an informed opinion on and thus, be able to answer.
1, would moving her and 1 of her filters into her old 10 gallon tank improve her quality of life? It would be easier to cool 10 gallons then the 20 she has now but she would lose half her space.
2, should I even have a substrate at this point? Could it be causing any issues?
3, are salt baths the way to go with curing this fungus? Or should I just take her to a vet?
Please help. I don't want a sick pet. I am trying to start my new job but I haven't slept in 2 days and probably gonna end up quitting. There are other reasons as to why, two major ones that are entirely work related, but they want me to working a ton of long shifts, away from my sick pet and all I am doing is worrying. I'm tired, I'm gonna go play Skyrim now or draw, I don't know.
that’s good she’s doing better. I would keep doing that, or whatever works for you, however, if it doesn’t go away I would go to methylene blue. It’s a lot gentler then salt baths as wlel