Illness/Sickness: Gill fungus?

[sebguy]

Recently my little axie- Aristotlina has been looking a little sick around the gills
as you cans see from the picture there are little chunks in her gills
this could be fungus but i was also thinking that it could just be food
as Ari is a very messy eater and the food is the same sort of color

could it be fungus? should i treat it? or should i just brush it out with my hands?

tank info
-two filters (one being a chiller the other built in)
ph-7
temp 21 (thats about as good as you can get it in australia)

btw, it doesn't seem to be affecting her behavior shes still eating swimming and doing
what a normal axolotl does

 

[auntiejude]

Doesn't look like fungus - it usually appears as a little cotton-wool-like ball. Your pics look more like dead filaments, which can happen when water quality is off, so check your parameters. If she seems happy and normal then I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[sebguy]

thanks for the reply but it seems to be getting worse despite cleaning my tank
, she is losing more filaments and there is more of the yellow stuff, dead filaments
is there anyway to make the regeneration process faster?

 

[Skudo09]

Have you tested your water parameters? What are the levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? This will help determine anything not quite right in the water. You could try a tea bath which may help soothe the skin but it is best to also work out what has caused it if possible as eliminating the cause will help with getting her better.

 

[Cacique]

Like advised, I would check the water parameters, specifically ammonia, nitrite and nitrates to start. Your ammonia and nitrite should be 0 and nitrates should be under 40ppm.

 

[HitmanSougo13]

You can try rubbing her gills gently with a q-tip. It does scare them though.

 

[sebguy]

Thanks for the replies everyone,
so, i took a water sample to the aquarium and they said that everything was good for
axolotls accept that the ammonia was too high, and that it seemed as though the water was messy(probably leftover food -- axolotls are messy eaters)
recently i noticed that some of the stuff was coming of in little stringy bits almost like it was
peeling so i decided to brush it out with my finger, she didn't seem to bothered by it and most of it came away quickly
and finally I also noticed that the filaments at the tips of the gills were more consistently brown than the rest
I've just done a major tank clean and i hope that she starts to look better soon

 

[LSuzuki]

It is worth the money to get your own test kit. Get the kind that uses chemicals - not the strips. If you get in the habit of testing weekly, you will catch these problems before they cause symptoms. :happy:

 

[sebguy]

Yeah, ive considered buying a full test kit but decided not to as the aquarium is literally on the corner of the block that i live :tongue:

 

[LSuzuki]

Well, if they don't get tired of you visiting every week, then that works. :tongue:

Years ago there was a LFS near me that instituted a one-free-test-a-week policy, because there was one customer who was getting his water tested every day. To me, the inconvenience alone would dictate getting my own test kit. :happy:

 

[Cacique]

If you're going to rely on the aquarium for your water testing, you need to make sure to ask for the specific numbers and not take an "all is good" answer, as they will many times say all is good while the actual parameters are out of control. By asking for the specific numbers of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH at least, you'll know better where you stand. Since you don't want a water test kit, take some tap water with you and get it tested too, you'll never know if anything has been added to the tap water, sometimes it can have ammonia in it.

 

[sebguy]

thanks for the tips,
but i usually do get them to write it down on paper, its just that from what i could see
what they said was right

well aristotlina is looking better after a big fish tanks and filter clean, her gill filaments are
very red and are getting more fluffy daily!