SquirrelBait
New member
Hello, I’m reaching out because I’ve been fighting with fungus off and on since November and I’m also still new to axolotls so any and all advice is much appreciated. My pictures are just to show my babies and my set up, they do not show the fungus and they didn’t have any at the time.
MY SET UP;
I have 2 Lucy’s I’m assuming are about a year old in a 40 gallon. I have 3 hides (one being technically for a terrarium), a hammock (technically made for a terrarium), 2 silk plants, 2 fake plants suctioned at the top to break the flow from the HOBs, one live Anubis, and an aerator. My filters are HOB, one is a 20 gallon and the other is a 40-60 gallon. One has the filter pad with a bio bag of matrix (to help cut nitrates), while the smaller has the pad with the plastic piece for good bacteria. I currently have 3 Indian almond leaves in the tank. My parameters are reading ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates about 60 ppm. Temperature stays between 60 and 64 degrees. My tank is bare bottom. I also have 4 ghost shrimp in the tank.
MY ROUTINE;
Once a week I do a 20 to 50% water change depending on how high my nitrates are and if the fungus is present. I use 5 gallon buckets and a siphon. I fill the buckets with cool water and a cap full of Prime conditioner (a little more than what it recommended) and let it sit a couple hours before adding it in. I take out one of the 3 hides (rotating out which one each week) and clean it with my hands and hot water then dip it in cool primed water before adding it back in. Every second to third week I change the filter media in only one filter then 2-3 weeks later I do the other filter. I also suck up poop with a turkey baster that is only used for this tank anytime I see it throughout the day.
I feed daily using the pellets I was given when I got them (sinking carnivore pellets made by Hikari) and one of the axies eats 2 blanched red worms every few days instead of the pellets whereas the other refuses the worms. I also give bloodworms or fresh salmon every once in a while. They both refuse night crawlers and every live food I’ve tried including guppies and shrimp. Leftover food is never left in the tank.
MY PROBLEMS;
I had fungus appear the first time on the smaller ones gills right after getting them. I treated it with a salt bath (that’s what was Recommended to me at the time) which worked great. During this, I discovered 2 small white patches on a decoration that looked like fungus so I removed the decoration and cleaned it thoroughly. After this I thought I had found and gotten rid of the source of the problem.
Well I guess I was wrong because since then I find new fungus on one’s gills almost every other week. It has been 4 months of this in and off now and I’m desperate. I’m so tired of fighting with this fungus. I added the almond leaves after being rid of the fungus once again in hope it would prevent it from coming back but this morning there is a spot on one of the axolotls gill again. I just recently learned that methilyne blue is a better treatment option so I have some ordered and will be using that to treat this time. Each time I have treated them the fungus has come off but it just keeps coming back and I can’t find a source anywhere! All of my decorations appear fine and get cleaned at least once a month. If anyone has any ideas of what could be causing this or knows something I could try then please, please help. The axolotls miraculously still have full and beautiful gills and have never lost appetite or acted differently from the fungus but I don’t wanna keep going through this or keep putting them through it. One of my axolotls is also very hard to transfer and thrashes wildly wether I use a tub, net, or my hands. He has hurt himself during a transfer before and I hate having to take that risk so often. I just don’t know what to do at this point and as much as I hate it I may let them go if I can’t figure out how to get this under control. I feel like I’m failing at this and the issue is that I have no idea what I’m missing or not catching. I even added some aquarium salt to the tank a couple weeks ago thinking that maybe since it treats it in the tub maybe it would keep it out of the tank but I only added 3 tablespoons because I don’t have a way to test salinity and I don’t want it to hurt them and that didn’t make a difference and I’ve done 2 large water changes since then and haven’t added anymore so the salinity is probably very close to being back to 0 by now. Plus I was recently told it’s not good for their slime cost so I won’t be adding anymore and that’s why I’m switching from salt baths to mathilyne blue for treatments.
MY SET UP;
I have 2 Lucy’s I’m assuming are about a year old in a 40 gallon. I have 3 hides (one being technically for a terrarium), a hammock (technically made for a terrarium), 2 silk plants, 2 fake plants suctioned at the top to break the flow from the HOBs, one live Anubis, and an aerator. My filters are HOB, one is a 20 gallon and the other is a 40-60 gallon. One has the filter pad with a bio bag of matrix (to help cut nitrates), while the smaller has the pad with the plastic piece for good bacteria. I currently have 3 Indian almond leaves in the tank. My parameters are reading ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates about 60 ppm. Temperature stays between 60 and 64 degrees. My tank is bare bottom. I also have 4 ghost shrimp in the tank.
MY ROUTINE;
Once a week I do a 20 to 50% water change depending on how high my nitrates are and if the fungus is present. I use 5 gallon buckets and a siphon. I fill the buckets with cool water and a cap full of Prime conditioner (a little more than what it recommended) and let it sit a couple hours before adding it in. I take out one of the 3 hides (rotating out which one each week) and clean it with my hands and hot water then dip it in cool primed water before adding it back in. Every second to third week I change the filter media in only one filter then 2-3 weeks later I do the other filter. I also suck up poop with a turkey baster that is only used for this tank anytime I see it throughout the day.
I feed daily using the pellets I was given when I got them (sinking carnivore pellets made by Hikari) and one of the axies eats 2 blanched red worms every few days instead of the pellets whereas the other refuses the worms. I also give bloodworms or fresh salmon every once in a while. They both refuse night crawlers and every live food I’ve tried including guppies and shrimp. Leftover food is never left in the tank.
MY PROBLEMS;
I had fungus appear the first time on the smaller ones gills right after getting them. I treated it with a salt bath (that’s what was Recommended to me at the time) which worked great. During this, I discovered 2 small white patches on a decoration that looked like fungus so I removed the decoration and cleaned it thoroughly. After this I thought I had found and gotten rid of the source of the problem.
Well I guess I was wrong because since then I find new fungus on one’s gills almost every other week. It has been 4 months of this in and off now and I’m desperate. I’m so tired of fighting with this fungus. I added the almond leaves after being rid of the fungus once again in hope it would prevent it from coming back but this morning there is a spot on one of the axolotls gill again. I just recently learned that methilyne blue is a better treatment option so I have some ordered and will be using that to treat this time. Each time I have treated them the fungus has come off but it just keeps coming back and I can’t find a source anywhere! All of my decorations appear fine and get cleaned at least once a month. If anyone has any ideas of what could be causing this or knows something I could try then please, please help. The axolotls miraculously still have full and beautiful gills and have never lost appetite or acted differently from the fungus but I don’t wanna keep going through this or keep putting them through it. One of my axolotls is also very hard to transfer and thrashes wildly wether I use a tub, net, or my hands. He has hurt himself during a transfer before and I hate having to take that risk so often. I just don’t know what to do at this point and as much as I hate it I may let them go if I can’t figure out how to get this under control. I feel like I’m failing at this and the issue is that I have no idea what I’m missing or not catching. I even added some aquarium salt to the tank a couple weeks ago thinking that maybe since it treats it in the tub maybe it would keep it out of the tank but I only added 3 tablespoons because I don’t have a way to test salinity and I don’t want it to hurt them and that didn’t make a difference and I’ve done 2 large water changes since then and haven’t added anymore so the salinity is probably very close to being back to 0 by now. Plus I was recently told it’s not good for their slime cost so I won’t be adding anymore and that’s why I’m switching from salt baths to mathilyne blue for treatments.
