Photo: Gill changes

[thenashi]

This is Percy.
He is a bit of a fatty (just loooooves food) and about 4 days ago, a new axolotl was introduced to the tank.

Since then he has developed this wierd patch on his gills (best photo I could take sorry)
It looks like the gills have no oxygen flow to them??

The new axolotl is very timid (would almost count her as a rescue lotl it was that bad!) and no fighting has occured. Percy seems to have taken her under his wing and looks after her.

Unsure what to make of this, and have no vets able to look at him in my region.

Any advice/help is welcome!

 

[mackinthebox]

it almost looks like fungus, but it could also just be waste
I had something similar looking on one of my axolotls and it turned out to be a bit of undigested worm skin from a large poo one of them had made
it had initially gone away until a day after i fed them again, after feeding they all took hefty... poos, and in a couple of them I could see this undigested bit of worm
they happened to break it up as I didnt get in fast enough to clean it out and it wound up floating around and eventually sticking in one of their gills
I used my syphon for water changes and just sucked it off, it wasnt happy about the flow but I got the crud off and it never came back
the axie was given some shrimp pellets and that seemed to make up for the suction it had experienced

 

[thenashi]

Thanks,
He's pretty chilled and food orientated, so I could probably distract him with that!
Did you use your normal siphon or a smaller one?

 

[mackinthebox]

i have a pretty small one i use on my axolotl tanks, its maybe and inch in diameter
i would suggest using one with as low a flow as possible, dont want to harm the gills or freak em out too much

 

[HayleyK]

Everything living, including feeder fish/shrimp, plants or other axolotls they should be quarantined for a few weeks to prevent illness spreading to your main tank.

It doesn't look too sinister and it may be fungal. Try siphoning it gently. If it returns it's likely is a fungus and you can treat them at home by giving salt baths.

 

[thenashi]

The affected area is now about twice the size!!!
Possible confirmation of fungus?
Have quarantined him, but am also pre-emptively treating the others

 

[HayleyK]

I would say so, check out the salt bath tutorial.

Salt baths can be irritating to their coats so I would avoid salt bathing the others if there's no fungus present. You can try Indian almond leaves instead.

Fungal spores are always in the tank and only affect an axolotl with a weakened immune system or a breach in the slime coat from water quality or actual cuts/scrapes.

 

[thenashi]

Thank you very much for your help! I will post again when he is (hopefully) all better =)

 

[thenashi]

So Percy is already doing a lot better! The affected part of his gill has actually fallen straight off making me believe that he could have nicked it or been bitten by one of his lotl friends? the gill stem still has blood flow, and the non-affected areas seem absolutely normal.