catstralnaut
New member
I am a first time Axolotl owner and took home a baby Leucistic yesterday. He’s just under 4” long and I’ve got him in a 20 gallon long tank with a 10 gallon sponge filter with an attached airflow valve, of which i have reduced to create the most minimal amount of bubbles possible.. He’s got a cave, a big ol’ piece of mopani driftwood with some faux plants on the glass bottom as well as live frog bit floating at the surface, some java fern, and a couple anubias that are glued to the log. I bought the live plants from a local seller who included some guppy fry. I added them to the tank solo last weekend to help kick start the cycle and offer the new dude a little treat upon his arrival. Upon bringing him home and introducing him to the tank, I noticed he’s not all that interested in the guppy fry so I separated the males into a different tank in case of breeding as i’m not set up to sustain that in the long run.
I’m checking the water parameters daily since his arrival. Not producing any nitrates since I set it up a week ago so I have done partial water changes both days he’s been in there so far to keep the ammonia under 0.25 ppm. I have yet to invent a diy plastic mesh panel on the backside of my glass canopy top to help with cooling when i’m away from home and don’t wanna leave the top open, but his water temp has been sitting at just under 20 degrees C for the last week. I’m hoping to do this tomorrow to ensure the temperature stays nice and cool for him over the summer when i am away at work during the day.
The reason I am posting is because of his mysterious gill damage overnight. The gill that is damaged was always a little bit smaller than the other side, but now it is much worse with some fuzzy growth that I am concerned is columnaris. None of the fry are displaying these symptoms, though.
Here is a pic of him on day 1 (yesterday):
with his full, happy gills.
Here is a pic of him in the morning of day 2 (today):
with his pink tips missing from one of his gills. I’ve been monitoring him over the course of the day and it hasn’t changed much. If it were columnaris - will it easily spread to his other gills? My other potential worry is that the fry tried feeding on his gills overnight while i was sleeping. I haven’t removed the 4 females yet (they’re all only about 1/2” long rn) but have been watching them all day. They swim up to and around him but I have not witnessed them picking on him. They have plenty of their own food to eat as well as the uneaten blood worms, so they can’t be starving.
i know these little dudes can regenerate damaged tissue, so I am wondering what I can do to help him get better and/or possible suggests on what you might think is causing it. He’s eating all his blood worms, hiding out in and around his cave, and swimming up for gulps of air at a normal seeming rate. He did a little float down from a gulp of air today and landed belly first on a piece of the driftwood and something seemed to spook him and he took off in obvious fear (as it was the fastest i had seen him move since being here) then hid for several hours. I inspected the log and didn’t find any sharp bits but proceeded to file down some edges around where he freaked out, just in case.
what do y’all think? this is my new obsession and i guess there is no amount of research to prepare you for the helplessness you feel when you notice damaged gills. i don’t want to cause him any unneeded stress, should i just remove the guppies? How long, on average, does it take to start to see improvement? I just got him and don’t really want to fridge him right away, unless i have to.
here is a pic of the full tank, for reference.
since posting this a few hours ago, then moving it to the sick thread, rizla has successfully scraped the fuzz off by crawling under the driftwood. i guess i will continue to monitor whether the fuzzy growth returns, although i’m almost certain it will since it was already there. i’m not sure what to do, other than continue with daily partial water changes until it fully cycles.
I’m checking the water parameters daily since his arrival. Not producing any nitrates since I set it up a week ago so I have done partial water changes both days he’s been in there so far to keep the ammonia under 0.25 ppm. I have yet to invent a diy plastic mesh panel on the backside of my glass canopy top to help with cooling when i’m away from home and don’t wanna leave the top open, but his water temp has been sitting at just under 20 degrees C for the last week. I’m hoping to do this tomorrow to ensure the temperature stays nice and cool for him over the summer when i am away at work during the day.
The reason I am posting is because of his mysterious gill damage overnight. The gill that is damaged was always a little bit smaller than the other side, but now it is much worse with some fuzzy growth that I am concerned is columnaris. None of the fry are displaying these symptoms, though.
Here is a pic of him on day 1 (yesterday):
with his full, happy gills.
Here is a pic of him in the morning of day 2 (today):
with his pink tips missing from one of his gills. I’ve been monitoring him over the course of the day and it hasn’t changed much. If it were columnaris - will it easily spread to his other gills? My other potential worry is that the fry tried feeding on his gills overnight while i was sleeping. I haven’t removed the 4 females yet (they’re all only about 1/2” long rn) but have been watching them all day. They swim up to and around him but I have not witnessed them picking on him. They have plenty of their own food to eat as well as the uneaten blood worms, so they can’t be starving.
i know these little dudes can regenerate damaged tissue, so I am wondering what I can do to help him get better and/or possible suggests on what you might think is causing it. He’s eating all his blood worms, hiding out in and around his cave, and swimming up for gulps of air at a normal seeming rate. He did a little float down from a gulp of air today and landed belly first on a piece of the driftwood and something seemed to spook him and he took off in obvious fear (as it was the fastest i had seen him move since being here) then hid for several hours. I inspected the log and didn’t find any sharp bits but proceeded to file down some edges around where he freaked out, just in case.
what do y’all think? this is my new obsession and i guess there is no amount of research to prepare you for the helplessness you feel when you notice damaged gills. i don’t want to cause him any unneeded stress, should i just remove the guppies? How long, on average, does it take to start to see improvement? I just got him and don’t really want to fridge him right away, unless i have to.
here is a pic of the full tank, for reference.
since posting this a few hours ago, then moving it to the sick thread, rizla has successfully scraped the fuzz off by crawling under the driftwood. i guess i will continue to monitor whether the fuzzy growth returns, although i’m almost certain it will since it was already there. i’m not sure what to do, other than continue with daily partial water changes until it fully cycles.
