HELP one dead and two poorly! D:

[Xoloto]

I am such an idiot as I may of well caused the death of all my axies I brought in the fishtank from my garden a few days ago ,I washed it hot salty water and then poured in some fresh salty water for a day to check for leaks ,I use glass cleaner for the outside (could that have caused a problem i wonder) .Once I thought it was clean I rinsed it out and added freshwater then the next day added my axies .All was fine and they ate their food like normal but :


This morning I woke up and Lo was upside down lifeless covered in white fuzz (it's eyes haven't clouded over so i've put him in a tub of his own incase he's alive) and the other two have white fungus fuzz spots and their gills look small and damaged (ammonia burns? )


I really don't know what happened but I think maybe the tank wasn't clean enough and whatever was in it was still there I feel really terrible as they where doing perfectly in their tub and had lovely gills but thought they'd like a big 4ft tank but I really need to know what I should do now?

should I tea bath and salt bath? I don't want to put them in the fridge but do i need to? and is the one who's lifeless actually alive ? sometimes I see his tail twitch or him gaping his mouth open but he had sick coming out his mouth and had pooped which normally means death but i don't want to discard him if he's actually alive .I've put Tl and Axo in a salt bath which seemed to help with the fungus but do I tea bath and will the salt bath damaged their slim coat even more?


It has shocked me how fast they can go downhill within a few hours .


please please help my babies! they are my first axies and I just feel so lost and stupid for causing this.This is terrible what have I did to my little lotls :'(

-panic-

 

[Xoloto]

sorry my spelling and grammar is terrible I'm just really shaked up and panicking ! I hope it makes sense though.

 

[Xoloto]

!!!! LO IS ALIVE ....omg
I put him in the fridge did a salt bath and 10 mins later he's moving around as he's alive but he looks so poorly i'm still extremely worried that he may pass away

can anyone help me !?

what should I do .Should I look for a reptile vet?

 

[auntiejude]

Stop panicking - won't do anyone any good - and work out what caused the problem and how to fix it. And you're talking to the right people!

Keep them in individual tubs for the time being, do salt and tea baths (see stickies) and change the water daily until their tank is ready again. They should recover if you have removed them from the problem. If you have somewhere cool to keep them there's no need to put them in the fridge unless they really are in trouble. Vets are expensive, I would only go to a vet in a dire emergency.

If Lo has recovered some then I think you're facing a toxic tank issue:

If you put them in a clean fresh tank was the water and filter cycled? It could well be an ammonia problem if you have just bunged them in.
Was there a temperature difference between their old tub and the new set up? Tempertaure shock could also be an answer.
Has the tank been sitting there in the garden empty for a long time? Could the sealant have degraded? Could it have been contaminted with pesticides, herbicides, animal waste etc?

Give your tank another going over, maybe get some fish-safe decontamination stuff from your LFS. Make sure your tank is fully cylced before you attempt to put them back in.

 

[Xoloto]

Tank was used previously for a bearded dragon who sadly passed away so the illness could of still lived in the tank despite it being cleaned before we stored the tank out in the garden where it stayed for around 3 years,my dogs do the loo out in the garden but in a seperate bit away from the tank but it could of still contaminated it , there was some kind of algae growing on it before i cleaned it that grew in snowflake shapes .The sealent could have degraded or could of been unsuitable for water !

I used some of the water from their old tub,added half new stuff ,the filter is the same I used in the tub and filled it only 10 inches as they haven't lived in deep water .

I need to read up on cycling tanks as I've never been successful with it for fish and i'm currently waiting on my test kit ,I just do 90% water change every few days which was fine for the axies but I think this tank will not be used for them! I'm just going to scrap it as it already has several chips along the top and a small leak in the corner and i don't want to risk them getting ill again , I will be putting them back in their 2ft tub till i can get a new fish tank from the store .

I just feel so awful as it's my fault they are suffering .

 

[axolotl newbie]

It's more likely to be the water than the tank that's caused the problem. Mine occasionally get fungus if there's a big temperature drop during a water change. Did you treat the water with dechlorinator?
Your intentions were good so don't beat yourself up. I hope they recover ok- your leucistic is stunning! I've never seen such amazing markings

 

[Xoloto]

I'm not going to risk it just incase </3 plus the old tank is passed it's expiry date anyway just thought i'd try it out instead of letting it waste away in the garden .It could of been the water but it wasn't that much of a temp spike .


little Lo isn't doing to good but better than what he was specially considering I thought he was dead but he's bleeding from the gills and mouth a little and his slime coat is very damaged that he doesn't feel slimey anymore and his gills stick to his body I'm keeping a close eye on him but it's not looking good.

Axo (lighter wildtype) and TL (lue) are doing a lot better though and seem to be recovering .All are in seperate tubs just so they can heal .Does anyone know how often I should do the tea and salt baths?

 

[auntiejude]

If an axie is bleeding from the gills I's say there was something toxic in the water - either the water itself (like ammonia) or something leaching from the tank itself - or he's been bitten.

Salt and tea bath should be done twice a day - I would avoid putting Lo in a salt bath until he is a bit better - salt in a would will not do him any good.

I hope they all recover.

 

[Alkylhalide]

I dont know about anyone else but I think it may have been something leeching from the tank as well. Ive seen this happen if you keep an axolotl in a salt bath to long. I dont know it seems like you did clean it thouroughly but it is a thought.

As far as 90% water changes, probably should be doing 20-40% daily instead. And testing the water every other day for spikes that may require a bit bigger of a water change, but i still do not believe it was ammonia burn, ive seen this before in some of my babies that had fluid retention and bloat and i tried everything i could find to try to help them, though knowing to well that it was genetic and there wasnt anything i could do. But i did notice that A if there is a huge temp shock which was stated above they do quickly stress and "could" die, mine did but they were babies and thefridge i knew may of kille them but i knew they were goingto die regardless so to me it was worth a try. But their gills kind of looked like that when i took one out. I also tried something i found on a caudata article about fluid retention in amphibians(never try this on an axolotl it does not work) but i tried leaving one of them in a tub of a very very weak salt bath( like 1/10th of the concentration of the salt baths that we treat fungus with) and within an hour this is exactly what the poor guy looked like. I dont think it was fungus but more his slime coat peeling and looking like fungus.

I would refrain from salt baths unless you are 100% sure that it is fungus or just their slime coat. Because the salt baths may make it worst, but the tea baths make it better, but if you do both uncessesarly then you nay get nowhere and they dont get worst but not get better.

If you are 100% sure that its fungus then continue the salt baths however until it is gone!

The fact that they have began the detox and that at least two are doing better and one who you thought was dead is alive is a great step in the right direction. Just keep doing what your doing! And dont worry id probably of panicked more then you. And when i panic i do stupid things, at least you seemed to panic in the right direction

The bleeding from the gills could be from the salt baths. At least that is something that i have noticed. Just a heads up. Im not 100% sure on that though but from what i said above, this was another thing i noticed from the baby that i tried to longer but weaker salt bath on.

 

[Xoloto]

Thank you for the help but sadly i failed to help Lo ...</3 he passed away last night

Tl and Axo are doing better ,they have more colour in them and the fuzz is gone so i'm hoping their gills will start to heal now.

 

[pondweed]

I'm so sorry to hear about Lo, Xoloto. I haven't been around for a bit and I can imagine you've been putting yourself through Hell over this. You did everything you could to disinfect the tank with salt first. I can't say whether it was water, but whatever happened, I'm really sad for hope.

Hope Tl and Axo continue to improve.

 

[Xoloto]

I'm okay <3 I've had so many people and pets die within my lifetime i just go numb when something dies .Just felt like a failure cause I was the cause of his death but hopefully his siblings will live long.Going to go looking for a new tank tomorrow and then have it cycle before adding them so it'll give them a few months to heal.