Illness/Sickness: Is this a fungus?

so the axies are in the fridge atm, do i put them back in the aquarium and then put the blue stuff in the water?
 
You should always medicate in a separate container, not in the tank. Otherwise you'll kill off all the beneficial bacteria in your tank.

The biggest concern is finding the root cause of the fungus and preventing it in the first place. Do you have fish in the tank? Why is your ammonia so high? Is there any way to bring your temperature down, as that is a bit too high for axolotls? How often do you do water changes? What kind of substrate do you have? What is your cleaning regimen like?
 
Kaysie said:
You should always medicate in a separate container, not in the tank. Otherwise you'll kill off all the beneficial bacteria in your tank.

The biggest concern is finding the root cause of the fungus and preventing it in the first place. Do you have fish in the tank? Why is your ammonia so high? Is there any way to bring your temperature down, as that is a bit too high for axolotls? How often do you do water changes? What kind of substrate do you have? What is your cleaning regimen like?
Click to expand...


no fish, just two axies....before they got sick i had just done a 30% water change, put two bricks in from the outdoor pond and put in a water plant in a pot from the pond.

I dont know why amonia is high

i now have a fan blowing on the tank

i have been a little lax with water changes, but will try really hard to do them once a week

sand substrate

cleaning : i have a bucket of water sitting in the bathroom aging, i take some water out of the main tank and put the bucket water in, and clean the sides with a sponge...i suck up yuck on the bottom with a baster
 
You wipe the sides of the tank with a sponge? How often do you do that?
 
checked on axie today and has some fungus loosly attatched to his body, so i got a cotton but tovery gently remove it and under neath is red dots/wounds... was the fungus hiding it or did i injure him by removing fungus?
 
What Kaysie is most likely concerned about is that every time you're wiping down your tank you're removing the good bacteria that help keep your tank healthy and stop ammonia. The red bumps are usually a sign of ammonia burn
 
Olivia97 said:
What Kaysie is most likely concerned about is that every time you're wiping down your tank you're removing the good bacteria that help keep your tank healthy and stop ammonia. The red bumps are usually a sign of ammonia burn
Click to expand...

the tank is infront of a window so i assumed that its alge? its brown and gunky and i cant see into the tank if i leave it? how do i fix ammonia levels? chemicals from pert shops or plants or something else?
 
Olivia hit it on the nose. By wiping down the aquarium, you're removing all of your good bacteria.

You said you have a 6 foot tank? You wipe down the whole thing? I'm confused as to why your ammonia gets so high with only 2 axolotls. What kind of filtration do you have? How much decor do you have? Do you have any hides in there?

Bacteria will grow on every surface in the tank: the walls, the substrate, the filter, etc. The more bacteria you have, the better you'll be. They convert the ammonia (eventually) to less toxic nitrates.

The only way to get rid of ammonia is through water changes, cycling, or by heavily planting the tank. Chemicals is a terrible way to remove ammonia, no matter what the pet shop tells you. Remember that axolotls are not fish, and they cannot handle most of the treatment that fish can.

Since your ammonia is high, you really should be doing almost daily water changes. You may need to do 10-20% daily changes. Get a test kit. Liquid reagent (dropper style) kits are the most reliable. Test regularly. Change as necessary to keep levels in check. Use a dechlorinator that doesn't 'bind ammonia'. Prime is notorious for that. I don't recommend it.

The brown gunk you're scraping off is probably diatomateous algae, or brown algae. It's not harmful, but unsightly. The best way to remove it is to lower light levels. Some believe it's affected by phosphorous levels.
 
Have you ever used a siphon to vacuum your sand? How deep is your sand? Do you ever pick your decorations and clean under them?
 
this is a pic of my tank, its a work in progress so quite empty
i dont wipe down the whole tank, only the algae that spreads along the front
you can see my filter in the tank, not sure what its called
i did have two bricks and a water pot plant in there but removed them when axie got sick coz i was worried they had somehow caused it...do you think i can put them back in?
my mother in law is bringing me duckweed and java fern today :)

i have never used a siphon to clean the sand...was worried about losing it all...i do clean under ornaments
 
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You won't lose all your sand if you vacuum it. I imagine you have some trapped waste in your sand that is causing your ammonia to go up. Siphon waste water into a bucket, then just dump whatever sand does get siphoned out back into the tank.

Plants should help too.
 
salt baths have done nothing...its covering his whole body...used that blue stuff today but i dont think he will get through the night.
 
Wiping down the tank shouldn't affect the ammonia at all. The real place you need to worry about that bacteria is the filter. The bacteria on the decor will help cycle other tanks, but it does a very minuscule job at actually filtering a tank.
 
Axolotl is dead..completely covered in fungus...thanks for the help..so much for fridging and salt baths :( i think next time ill go straight to the pet shop and get medicine...thanks anyway.
 
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