Gills looking like they are going to decay?!?!

[HaveACrouton]

Apollo is in a tank with 2 other axolotls, I do daily water changes and I test their water every day. I maintain their water and clean the tank all the time, and I feed them regularly.

Anyways, Apollo (one if my leucistic ones) has a good appetite but I noticed that he has black spots growing at the base of his red gills, and I though it was just black pigmentation, but then the spots crawled up his gills slowly and now there are white crusty looking bits in the black spots??

I don't know what it is but I started giving him salt baths, I have no idea what it is

ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED?!

Also, Aurelius (leucistic) and Icarus (green wild) don't seem afflicted with this at all, although Aurelius is starting to show that he has black spots at the base of his gills too...

I've attached pictures but my phone camera doesn't really pick up on it well.

Oh and when I put Apollo in his 5 minute salt baths his skin is kind of greyish.. I don't think that's normal?

Maybe I'm freaking out? is the salt bath a bad thing??

 

[Bellabelloo]

I would only use a salt bath if you are sure you have a definite fungal problem.
From what I can see in the photo's, the black marks on the gills looks normal. Unfortunately I can't see the crusty bits. I would carry on keeping the water clean and cool, and see how it progress's. If you can take a close up picture of the crusty bits...add it on to here for us to see.

 

[jhonny]

it still looks pretty young.. and i've seen axies with black gils.
perhaps your axie is just changing color?
i wouldnt worry to much, like bellaboo said.. keep an eye on it.

 

[imzunicorn]

Are the axolotls that are getting these spots siblings? How long old are they? Does the spots or crusty bits look elevated? Like, do they stick out some?

It really does look like it's a normal coloration change, but it might just be because we can't clearly see what you're talking about.

 

[HaveACrouton]

I don't think they are siblings because they are from different pet stores. They are about 4.5 inches.

The crusty bits look like they are ever so slightly raised.

Also, his gills are normally a bright red, or pink but he had the tip of one gill bit and now that ENTIRE gill is white and the rest are pink??

 

[imzunicorn]

Sounds like it might be a parasite. Continue the salt baths. And you should probably separate the one that has the bitten gill. Refrigerate all of them.

Did you add any new plants or is any one of them new? What do you feed them? Did you get anything used from another tank?

 

[HaveACrouton]

I don't have any new plants, I feed them feeder comets and feeder minnows, and frozen bloodworms!

 

[imzunicorn]

Do you quarantine the fish before you feed?

 

[Cliff]

I notice you have black sand, from what I can see it is possible that what you are seeing is sand that has got trapped in the "hole" in the axolotl's head behind its gills?
and the reason you are noticing it because of the colour of both the sand and the axolotl?

The gills look healthy to me, - There are long, have no bits falling off them, they are still "fluffy" and not got any fuzzy growth on them.

Hope the little guys are alright!

Cliff

 

[HaveACrouton]

The black spots are crawling up his gills. How would I clean out this sand??

I don't quite know what you mean by quarantine the fish but I have them in a 10 gallon with a filter, and I treat their water with aquarium salt.

The white parts are disappearing with the salt baths!!

 

[imzunicorn]

Yeah, makes no sense if it were sand. It's clearly at the base of the gills, not behind the gills and I think you missed the point of the crusty white bits. If it were sand, there would be no reason why there's crusty white bits.

Quarantining the fish is when you keep them around for a month or two to make sure they are free of diseases. They most likely had some strange bug on them and transferred it to the axolotls.

Since I'm not really sure what kind of parasite it is, I'm not sure how to treat the tank. The only thing I can really think to do is drain the tank out completely, let it sit for about a week and start over. Just keep the axolotls fridged and the bath salts going until it's completely gone. Do this with the tank once it's disappeared, so they have a whole week to be completely rid of it before going back in the tank.