Illness/Sickness: Gills curled forward

[Pseudacris]

I recently obtained an axolotl from a friend who could no longer care for it. When I received him, his tank was extremely grimy. He also had a water filter that caused some disturbance of the water. I scrubbed his tank. Changed the water, and took out the water filtration system. It's been two or three days since then, but I suspect that he is still stressed. His gills are very curled forward forming C shapes. He is also snapping his gills backward repeatedly towards his body.

His water temperature is 20 C, and he seems to be eating his floating food pellets well enough. He doesn't eat them all at once, but they eventually disappear.

From the dirty tank, I wonder if he has an infection. I plan on trying the Nitrofura-G treatment or the salt bath as I have read that's the thing to do.

My question is what should my timeline be? Is he merely taking a few days to adjust to the new surroundings? If his gills stay curled for another week, should I start the treatments? Or should I start them preemptively? Thanks for any advice you are able to give.

 

[Kaysie]

Give him a few days to adjust. The gill flicking is normal; it's the lazy axolotl's way of moving fresh water over the gills. Neither of those treatments would help stress. The best treatment is clean, cool, still water.