Disappearing Gills

[stace]

A bit of background to start...

My Axolotl is about 2 and a half years old, black in colour and he's in a 2ft tank.

He was looking pretty sad about 4 weeks ago, so i changed the water flow of the tank because i thought it might have been a problem. He started to look better but now, his gills are shrinking and he's coming to the surface a lot as a result. The pH levels are ok. I can't work it out.

Any opinions?

Thanx,

 

[kaysie]

With increased flow, you probably have increased oxygen content in the water. When there is more oxygen, they need to use less of their gills and they shrink. Just like if you stop using an arm, it will atrophy.

 

[jesse]

it could also be morphing

 

[stace]

He seems to be ok other than gill shrinkage. He's eating alright and is still fairly active. His tail isn't shrinking and he eyes aren't bugging out (which i read were other signs of morphing). Its just the gills.

He has, however, developed white spots (as you can see in the picture on the left), it doesn't seem to be a problem, but i am concerned. Also on the very tip of his tail, he has a little clear segment (about 1cm long). He's had it since he was little. Does anyone know what it is??

 

[jesse]

well the clear segment you dont real yhave to worry about. If it has been there since birth and hasnot caused any problem then you should be fine. as for the sport i think they may be fungus and you should worry. are they fuzzy?
fur like? if they are consider moving him to a hospital tank and getting some tetracycline or some kind of fungus fighter, some of the other people in the forum may be a little more knowledgible than me.

 

[clarence]

Are they spots, or are they white patches on his skin? The latter would be fungal.

 

[stace]

The spots don't look "fuzzy" but they do look like someone has spray-painted them on, that type of stippled textured appearance.

I tried to attached a picture, but its not working. but if you look at the photo to the left, it sort of gives you an idea of what he's got.

Also, as i said, he's nearly 3 years old (3 yrs from the day i got him) and he hasn't developed any genitalia. no bump behind the back legs at all.

Are there specific axolotl fungal fighters? I have some "triple sulfa". Can you buy tetracycline easily in Australia? and where would i find it?

 

[jesse]

if he hanot developpedthe bulgy cloaca then he is really a she

 

[stace]

I've bought some "Aqari-Cycline" tablets. They have 375mg of tetracycline hydrochloride in them, which the bottle tells me is the equivalent to 346mg/kg of tetracycline.

My question, after all that, is:

Is this suitable to treat the fungal spots on my axolotl? I'm planning on putting Brocky in a hospital tank for treatment. Any suggestions?

 

[sharon]

You might want to try this first...

LINK: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/salt.shtml

The formula threw me last night and someone translated it to 1 tsp marine salt per liter of water for me.

Sharon

 

[stace]

I tried the sal bath, as described on that website, last night. However, i couldn't remove the patches of white on his skin they seem like they're too close to the skin, and i don't want to start scraping away at Brocky and hurt him.

What's the best way to remove the white spots without hurting my axie? Should i just keep it up with the baths and see how it goes? or try the tetracycline?

Thank you

 

[jesse]

i never really used salt baths form any of my animals i always used tetracycline and it usually works jsut fine, there are also other anti biotics that work well on fungus infestions. wehn you say that they are too close to the skin that kind of makes me think that they are jsut collor spots, but i guess only time (or someone more knowledgible than me!) can tell
-Jesse

 

[clarence]

When I've encounter fungi, especially slow growing fungi, I use the salt bath, 15-thirty minutes per day, daily, for about a week. If I don't see an improvement, then I move on to stronger measures.

 

[stace]

Thanx for the advice. I'll keep going with the salt baths and see whether we get a change. If not i'll move up to the tetracycline.