Lesser Siren FUNGUS!

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

My lesser siren has developed a fungus on its top left gill. I'm not sure how I should approach this situation. With my newts and non-siren salamanders I usually salt the water that they are currently living in or take the axolotl out and give it salt baths. I did already add a little salt into its tank but not much. Is there a certain method I should use?

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Just give it a salt bath like you would an axolotl...just in a larger container.

 

[AaronK]

I had a similar issue with my lesser siren and put it in the fridge for a couple days with good success.

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Thanks Justin, thanks Aaron! I've considered both. I'll keep the Siren in the basement where its about 42 degrees. I'll do salt baths every other day till everything seems better. Cooling and salt baths. Thank you both!

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Here is an update on my lesser siren. Salt baths worked fine but since I've never applied a salt bath to a siren so I used a smaller amount of salt for the "salt baths". Obviously since I used minimal salt I had to apply more salt baths. Maybe if I used larger doses of salt my siren would have been fungus free sooner. I took the route of precaution.

Incase other siren keepers out there suffer the same situation. I put my siren in a 10 gallon tank filled with about 2-3 gallons of water. I used about 0.5 of a spoon of salt and left the siren in there for about 15 minutes. Everyday till the fungus fell away. The damaged gill is now growing back.

 

[Caudae]

This is good news! That looked like a pretty aggressive fungus!

I have used Meracyn Oxy (common in pet stores) with good success too on gill fungus, just dose for your aquarium size, then add enough for about another 10gal., treat every day up to 3 days (I wouldn't do any more days than that). If still present, salt bath it in colder temps!