Fungus and loss of appetite

[jmlotl]

Hi all. First of all, thank you for sharing your experiences on this site — it's very helpful, even if sometimes disputatious!

My son's beloved 7-month-old 'golden albino' axolotl Sunny has hit a rough patch. About a month ago, I noticed she was making many trips to the surface for air, combined with diminished appetite (liked pellets a little, but spat out worms, even once cut up). The water parameters were OK, but I had just added sand that I believe I failed to adequately rinse (I swear I tried!). Then a few days I checked and ammonia and nitrates were high-ish (0.5/40, nitrite at zero) and I live in a city where the water comes out of the tap very hard and with a pH of around 9, which I know can worsen ammonia's effect — I've tried to tame it with IAL/IAL extract.

After those tests, and a week or so of her eating less and less, I moved her to a tub. Have been doing daily water changes, and tried a day of tea-bath therapy, since it seems relatively low-risk. But she is still not eating like she used to — no worms at all, pellet or two every couple of days. And a stalk of (apparent?) fungus on one of her gills (pictured below) has only gotten longer after, say, 100 hours in the tub. What do the salamander sages recommend?

I'm not super-alarmed, since she's acting relatively normal now (a little sedate, maybe) and has stopped her manic trips to the surface. But maybe I should be? I have gone through worrying about sand-related impaction (her belly was almost bloated; she pooped twice, now she's almost too thin, I guess), ammonia/nitrate poisoning (she had had unusually reddish eyes, and the worrisome recent tests), and then the fungus. In short, I just don't know whether I should...

• Just stick to the tub for a while
• Try fridging or salt (both super-divisive on this forum, I would argue!)
• Or try some sort of other chemical treatment some people favor.

Let me know what you think? Thank you!

 

[EasternRomioi3]

I have to say that your little guy is too small for salt baths. You could easily, accidentally, bring tragedy. It is inauspicious to speak of that.

I have some quick questions.

1, do you own an API Fresh Water Master test kit? They are the most accurate and very simple to use and get. If you have one, what are the parameters of the water currently. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH, if you can get it.

2, what is the temperature? They need between 55 and 65 degrees. In my experience, fungus is a heat issue, my girl caught it last October when we had a heatwave again, in a month we should have snow, so she got fungus. She is an adult though, so I could treat it more easily.

3, I would avoid putting the little guy in the fridge for more than 10 minutes at that age.

4. How long is she? I think we need to get some weight on the little guy. A small axolotl should eat every day till they're like a year old. Even if it's just little pellets. What brand of pellets are you using? I think it might be time to transition to earthworms. They come in sizes, I get mine 'red wrigglers' at my local pet store, the worms are on average 3-6 inches long. You do NOT want 'nightcrawlers', they are huge, like 8-12 inches long, way too big for a little axolotl.

5, the sand, how fine is the sand? Sand that isn't ultra fine does present a threat to small axolotls but once they're fully grown, sand won't be an issue.

6, do you have any photos of the entire setup, the tank, the filter, the stuff in it, etc.

Finally, I think we should concentrate on getting them to eat. A fully grown axolotl will regenerate their gill stalks in like a month to three months. That's what mine did, she lost one in October, had it back by Christmas. Once they're a year old, they should eat every other day. I feed mine 3-4 pellets every other day and MAYBE a worm. Ideally, you want to be able to drop the food, be it worm or pellet, in front of their face, or above it, and their instinct to suck it in should kick in. If Sunny isn't doing that, she's truly not hungry, or she's afraid. I introduced a new food to mine last week and I had to take her into her tub and drop it right in above her head, and once I did, she learned what it was, just sucked it in, was happy, ate the rest.

Sorry for the long reply, if you can get me those answers, even just quick ones, I can try and help. I do NOT advise salt or long term fridging for such a small one. Sunny is growing still, we can work with this. She has lost most of the filaments on her gill stalks? That's what it looks like from the photo. IF we can get her fungus cleared up and get her eating more, those will regenerate very quickly. My girl regrew those in like a week. Again, she's 3 years old, big old girl compared to your son's axolotl.

I hope all is well, I hope your son is handling the situation. Sick pets are probably the biggest stressor in my life, so you have my sympathies.