Please help! White fluff (shedding?) on axolotl overnight, very red body + gills

[axolotlbuddy]

Hi all,

I'm starting with photos in case someone can tell what's wrong from those right away.



My four-year-old axolotl has grown ill very suddenly and I don't know how to help. He had a water change a week ago and was acting skittish after. Since then he has been acting strangely on and off (weird habits/symptoms for a day that disappear the next) but took a very sudden turn today. Here are some of the symptoms he's been having (not all current):

• covered in white fluff (current) - it almost looks like he's shedding his slime coat? This appeared overnight. He was a normal color/had no sign of this yesterday, but was very red/shedding this afternoon
• dark red (current)
• moving awkwardly (current)
• refusing food (since last night - ate a little [frozen bloodworms in small chunks], but rejected the rest. He is looking skinnier than usual though, so I worry he is vomiting it up)
• curled tail tip (former - the very tip was curled a few days ago. The slight curve in the photo straightens out when he moves)
• floating rear end (current/former - he was floating with his head down and tail tip pointing straight up the other day, but seemed to have no problem returning to the bottom. He pooped within the last day or two, but was floating his rear end a little earlier today [pictured])

I tested his water today (only with the easy strips, I don't have a more detailed test yet) and nothing looked out of the ordinary. He lives alone in a tank that usually has somewhere between 25-30 gallons of water and sand at the bottom. He has more plants + places to hide than pictured, and does not rub against the cave in the back. The temperature has been higher than I'd like lately (we're battling a heat wave), but I didn't want to cause him more distress by messing with it before getting some advice; it has reached 70F (usually low-mid 60s) but gone no higher than that.

Thank you for your help, he's very dear to us.

 

[AMurry24537]

Hi all,

I'm starting with photos in case someone can tell what's wrong from those right away.

View attachment 88954View attachment 88955View attachment 88956

My four-year-old axolotl has grown ill very suddenly and I don't know how to help. He had a water change a week ago and was acting skittish after. Since then he has been acting strangely on and off (weird habits/symptoms for a day that disappear the next) but took a very sudden turn today. Here are some of the symptoms he's been having (not all current):

• covered in white fluff (current) - it almost looks like he's shedding his slime coat? This appeared overnight. He was a normal color/had no sign of this yesterday, but was very red/shedding this afternoon
• dark red (current)
• moving awkwardly (current)
• refusing food (since last night - ate a little [frozen bloodworms in small chunks], but rejected the rest. He is looking skinnier than usual though, so I worry he is vomiting it up)
• curled tail tip (former - the very tip was curled a few days ago. The slight curve in the photo straightens out when he moves)
• floating rear end (current/former - he was floating with his head down and tail tip pointing straight up the other day, but seemed to have no problem returning to the bottom. He pooped within the last day or two, but was floating his rear end a little earlier today [pictured])

I tested his water today (only with the easy strips, I don't have a more detailed test yet) and nothing looked out of the ordinary. He lives alone in a tank that usually has somewhere between 25-30 gallons of water and sand at the bottom. He has more plants + places to hide than pictured, and does not rub against the cave in the back. The temperature has been higher than I'd like lately (we're battling a heat wave), but I didn't want to cause him more distress by messing with it before getting some advice; it has reached 70F (usually low-mid 60s) but gone no higher than that.

Thank you for your help, he's very dear to us.

Honestly, given the number and degree of symptoms, I would probably tub him in spring water, refrigerate, and do some black tea baths. I would also recommend getting a more detailed/accurate testing kit, since some kind of change in the water is the most likely culprit (unless anything else has been changed recently). It could be that there is some kind of issue in the pipes or in the water supply. Just to check (because I did this once), do you always get water from the same tap? Back in the early days, I once forgot that one of my taps dispensed softened water and not regular

Also, you really can't go wrong with lowering the temperature, as long as you do so gradually. Especially in this case, lower temperatures are much more likely to help than hurt.