Please help!! Tiger salamander larvae

[Tinagrif]

i am raising 5 tiger larvae in a 37 gallon tank. My tank has crashed. My water parameters are all bad. I has the water tested at pet co and they said my problem was high ammonia they suggested an ammonia filter and some bio starter and to just continue with water changes. About 3 days later now and one of my larvae has completely disappeared. Possibly could have been eaten by the biggest larvae but not sure that same day I noticed the biggest larvae had a broken gill with some white fuzzy stuff at the site of the break. The gill fell off and so did the white stuff. Now today the gill next to it is breaking off and he has been swimming frantically. I noticed his toes are see through and he has lost some color by the end of today I noticed the other were losing color as well and their toes are also turning white so I kinda freaked out and I've moved all of them into a plastic tub. I don't know what to do other than completely change their water and start over please help

 

[Skdecoteau]

Someone else will need to verify this, but I would do a complete water change ASAP. Or at least move them all into a clean tub with clean water & watch them to make sure they'll be okay with the sudden change.

Make sure that the water you are using is either pre-bottled filtered water (like Poland Springs) or that you've used dechlorinating drops first if it's tap water. It used to be enough to let it sit out overnight, but these days there's chloramines in the water that aren't removed that way so the water treatment drops are a must.

 

[Skdecoteau]

The white fuzzy stuff on the gills sounds like fungus, although I've never experienced it with mine before the description sounds about right. Bad water can increase the chances of illness in any aquatic species. I don't know what the remedy is, although there are forum posts and articles on it on this website.

If only a few of them have it, you might want to put them in a separate container so that it's less likely to spread to the others (if they don't have it already).

 

[Skdecoteau]

Oh, and I highly recommend getting an API water test kit - the full kit, not just the strips. It's a little bit of work but you'll be able to monitor pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates yourself and it's more accurate than the strips.

 

[Skdecoteau]

Please note that I have no experience with tiger larvae. My advice is from my experience with spotted salamander larvae and with general fish keeping. Regarding a total water change, some species are more delicate than others so I recommend doing a little more research on this forum and the articles on this site as well as other sources. At the very least maybe you could do an accelerated compete water change by doing like 25% or 50% changes every couple of hours. Either way, I'd still pull them all out of the big tank and thoroughly rinse out the substrate & decor items before putting them back.

 

[Tinagrif]

Thank you so much I do have the water drops and ended up doing the complete change although my test strips are still showing that my water is off. My larvae seem to be doing better though. They aren't swimming frantically and they have been eating like normal. The biggest one I think is getting ready to morph any day now so fingers crossed I can just keep doing 50% water changes until they all mprph . I have them set up in a half
and half water tank which I know boosts the ammonia back up but I don't want any of them to drown. I have two in a seperate tank that have morphed already. They are so tiny and cute! But I'm getting ready to move them to a better tank so that I can move this morphing one when he's ready. So much stress!! But yes I'm leaning toward a fungus as well because All of their gills are lighter in color now and not white but kinda fuzzy. I've read about the salt baths but I'm not sure if that's what they need and since the one who it seems to be affecting the most is about to morph I don't think its a good idea. Not for him anyway I don't want him to drown and as long as he's eating I want to keep getting his body ready. My 2 that morphed already barely just ate today after a week so they lost a lot of body mass. Do you knoq if antibiotics might be am option? Also do you know anything about why they have all started getting lighter in color? Is that something i should worry about? Thank you again for replying