Gill Fungus - I'm worried

[birdyy]

My axolotl's haven't been that healthy for about a month now. by black axolotl (Frankie) goes through phases of his 'skin' peeling and then being fine, as does my leucistic axolotl (Florence), tho much less evidently. i though everything had got better when i fixed what i thought was the problem (my nitrates had got out of control despite a weekly water changes of ~40%) however Florence has developed some fungus on her gills, now i feel out of my depth and have no idea what to do

help!

 

[Jen10s]

Poor babies..... Can you give some details of your water parameters at the moment ?

Also, what temperature is your water, fungus tends to thrive in warmer temps and having had issues with your Nitrates, they are probably still recovering from the stress of that leaving them open to more illness.

I would advise you read up on Kaysies sticky about Salt Bathing and also Jacquie's sticky about Fridging your Axies (under the Sick Axolotl tab) you're probably going to need 1 or both of them. Let us know your parameters & temp ASAP so we can advise the best action :happy:

 

[birdyy]

pH - 7.2
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrites - 0ppm
Nitrates - 10ppm (1day after water change)

Temp - ~19C (that's what the chiller has kept it at with slight variation) should i set the chiller to a cooler temp?

i will read up on those articles now
thankyou

 

[Jen10s]

pH - 7.2
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrites - 0ppm
Nitrates - 10ppm (1day after water change)

Temp - ~19C (that's what the chiller has kept it at with slight variation) should i set the chiller to a cooler temp?

i will read up on those articles now
thankyou

OK, water parameters and temp seem fine, perhaps the peeling is from when you had all that trouble before ......

Normally I would say Salt Bathing would take care of the fungus easily, but I'm concerned it might cause more damage to their slime coats. Skin damage can be soothed with tea baths or almond leaves added to the tank (there are also some threads on here with info on that too). I'm just not too sure about doing both at the same time, hopefully a more experienced member can advise here ??

Are they eating and pooping ? What do you feed them and how often ?

 

[birdyy]

haven't been eating much in the last week, but before that they were fine. and since they stopped eating as much there has been no poop.
but usually i feed them second daily and alternate between axolotl pellets and earthworms from my wormfarm

i really don't know what to do. thankyou for your help.

 

[Jen10s]

Poor Frankie looks worse than Florence for sure, perhaps the daily Salt bath first for a few days or until the fungus comes off .... They might not like you much, it's not fun for them but if you can get rid of the fungus, then concentrate on their peeling skin with either tea baths or if you can get some almond leaves, float them in your tank.

Still hoping someone more experienced can confirm this for me ? I'd hate to give you the wrong advice.

As for eating, can you get live black worms? They might tempt them

 

[Jen10s]

Any news on Frankie & Florence ? Hope things are going OK :happy:

 

[birdyy]

Frankie is doing well hopefully i can pull her out of the fridge tomorrow.
Unfortunately, Florence passed away the next day.

Thankyou for all your help though, i know what to do next time.

 

[Jen10s]

Frankie is doing well hopefully i can pull her out of the fridge tomorrow.
Unfortunately, Florence passed away the next day.

Thankyou for all your help though, i know what to do next time.

Sorry to hear your poor little Florence passed away

Also pleased to hear Frankie is improving, once out of the fridge her appetite should improve too and you can fatten her up with lots of delicious earthworms.

Did you end up doing the salt baths or tea baths ?

Keep us posted on progress and good luck ..... :happy:

 

[birdyy]

thanks, it was quite upsetting but at least she's not hurting anymore.

frankie was out of the fridge but will have to go back in as the fungus has started to come back.

i was giving him weakish salt baths which seemed to work well, and his skin was doing fine thank goodness.

also she hasn't eaten since this all started so i'm a bit worried about that. even when i had put her back in the tank she turned her nose up at the worm... i'm at a loss but will keep trying.

 

[Jen10s]

Do you have an up to date pic of Frankie ?

If the fungus is not too bad, you don't really need to fridge her, just make sure your water is clean, cool and the parameters are good. You can still salt bath and put her straight back into the tank. Don't forget, she won't be hungry whilst in the fridge either.

See if you can get some Indian Almond Leaves to float in the tank too, they are supposed to be great for soothing raw, sore skin and helping the slime coat (saw some on eBay the other day) or read up on adding tea to the water for the same reason.

Again, good luck, looking forward to more pics and progress with Frankie :happy: