Red Spots on Axolotl tail

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Guest
Hi. My new baby axie (albino) has developed a couple of red spots (about 2-3mm in diameter)on her tail. A couple of days ago we started with a heat wave here, and when the water temperatures began to get out of control I resorted to putting her in the fridge. She has been in there for nearly 2 full days at 10C. She is eating well, active, & doesn't seem to be showing any signs of distress, but has developed these two spots, which if she were a fish, I would have said are a bacterial infection. Akkie is my very first axolotl that I only adopted last week though, so in her case I am not sure.

I would really appreciate any advice or opinions on this.

Many thanks in advance
~Mouse
 
hmmm... I Think its red leg, my axie had this too and i treated it in a couple of days with and antibacterial medicine. Without pictures its hard to tell butt its better safe than sorry. DOnt just use any medicine because some are toxic to axolotls, anything containing mechalyte green ( if thats how you spell it, lol) is toxic. You can go to www.Axolotl.org click health and at the bottom of the page is a list of medicines that are safe and toxic to axolotls.
Im using Melafix but there is a debate between us if it is actrualy safe to use, but i use it without a problem.

Also if you cant get a bottle of medicine you can try salt baths, i think its 2-3teaspooons of water for every 2 litres of water, and leave him/her in that for 10-15min, twice a day. Remember to always use half a dose that is recomended on the axie bottles.

Hopfully other more knowledgeable people can help you like, Rheann, Joan and Ed (moderator).
 
Thanks for your reply & the link Stipe. I have some of the medications on the allowable list here (not that they are all AB's though) & its great to know what I can use for her should I need to. I had absolutely no idea when it came to axies and meds! I'll try and get some photos this morning to help give a better idea of the problem.
 
red leg isnt really that common so i would doubt its that unless we have some pictures...

one of my girls developed what looked like a popped blood vessel on her tail a while back, it went away after a month or so and she didnt seem botherd so i didnt do anything except keep an eye on her..

if it grows in size/changes colour etc let us know but for now just keep an eye on her, i would be hesitant to use any meds at this stage. a pic would help heaps if you could get us one
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Actually red leg is a fairly common disease in amphibians but it often doesn't present with the classic diagnostic symptom of red blotches/bleeding on the ventral surface.

the causative agents are bacteria (over ten species) that are very common in aquatic or wet enclosures.

Red-leg is a serios disease that needs prompt and effective treatment as death can occur within hours of symptoms. Over the counter medications are for the most part ineffective for red leg due to multi drug resistance and an inability to achieve a theraputic dose in the animal via a bath.

Ed
 
Thanks for all the replies! The red spots haven't gotten any bigger over night, & one actually looks a little fainter this morning. I tried to take some photos, but my camera isn't really up to the task. I've circled the two spots in black in the clearest image I managed to get. It's very poor though sorry.
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Is that on the bottom of his tail? It doesnt look like red leg itjsut could be like a little scratch or scrape, or where the blood has gathered.
 
thanks ed - you always help me! i just figured red leg wasnt that common ( i need to stop 'figuring' lol) because we hardly ever hear of such a thing on here, but then again most people wouldnt be able to diagnose it...
 
is that the axolotls tail in that pic? it looks more like a finger went over the lense.
 
the blurry bit on the other side of the finger is the axies tail. The spots are actually at the bottom of the tail. Sorry about the finger.. it was the only way I could get the silly camera to focus as it was having issues with the axie being similar in colour to the background & wouldn't focus.
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i see em and my first thought was a scratch that sort of 'bled'?
 
Mouse, you must have really keen sight to see those little red dots! Im curious if you've tested the ammonia and pH levels of your water and how long the tank has been established. Also if you have any sharp ornaments or rocks which may be the cause? Anyway, the good news is it doesn't look like anything to worry about.
 
atm she's in a 10L container in the fridge (at 10C) hiding from the current heat, so its not cycled, but I'm doing daily water changes at feed times with aged/dechlorinated water I am keeping in there with her. The ammonia levels are reading 0, but I haven't tested the ph.

I've only had her just less than a week though, so I guess its possible that she was scratched when she was caught by her previous owner? There was a piece of driftwood in the tank that she was in. I probably wouldn't normally worry so much, but she is so tiny (8-10cm) and just looks so small and fragile.

While on the subject of tank cycling and ammonia levels/spikes, is it possible to use products like ammolock or ammolock2 with axies? I am in the process of setting up a cycled tank for her & I know water changes are the way to control it, but am worried that when she is put in and the bioload increases I may get a sudden spike

Thanks for all your help I really appreciate it.
 
also.. all this talk of Red Leg has me a little concerned. I'd prefer to know as much about it as possible since it can be so dangerous, but I can't seem to find any information on this disease/infection. Can someone point me in the right direction please?

TIA
 
mouse- ammo lock tends to do nothing but hide the problems in tanks. you WANT the ammonia to show in a cycling tank otherwise the nitrite/nitrates will never show up which will make your tank cycling take months! water changes are all you need if you have a animal in a cycling tank- and if ammonia was ever to show up you wouldnt want it to be hidden by the ammo-lock, you'd want to fix the problem.

if you are worried about the bio load dont feed her for a couple of days before you put her in and slowly increase the amount of food you give her until your up to your normal ratios
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I think Akkie is sick. She is reddish and floating near the surface tonight & refusing to eat.

quick check of params. Ammonia 0.25, ph 7.8

obviously I have to get the ammonia down, so will do another water change, but what do I do about the floating and redness?

I've attached a couple of pics (hopefully) that should give a better idea.



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TIA
Mouse
 
Hi Mouse! My Axies didn't like the recent heat wave here in Perth either
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. I am only new to owning Axolotls too but I would suggest lowering the water level so that Akkie can touch the bottom but is still "submerged". So just enough water to cover her. They stress less when they are not floating. Is there an air stone bubbling in her water? If not, on prior advice given to me, pop one in or do regular water changes to keep up oxygen levels in the water.

I recently had to isolate my little Lotle (the black axie in my pic) after a "gravel munching" incident so that she could poop it out
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- I felt SO BAD (I quickly got rid of the gravel!) Lotle improved quickly once she was in shallow water with her feet on the bottom. I believe they won't poo while floating and if they can't poop air builds up in their tummy = MORE FLOATING. Lotle pooped within a couple of hours of being in shallow water!
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Like I said, I am only new to the forum and Axolotls, but from your pic Akkie's water looks deep enough to swim "up and down" a little and I was advised to keep Lotle in shallow water when she started floating. Might be worth a try.

As for the redness, I wouldn't like to offer advice cause I don't know enough. Maybe read through some older threads with similar "problems" - try the SEARCH engine thingy perhaps (3rd option at the top of the page).

There are lots of ppl to help with advice here which is awesome
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Hi Joanne - thanks for your advice. She did a huge poo over night (I swear she doesn't eat that much!) and isn't floating at the moment, so what you are saying makes a lot of sense.

She is in quite a large volume of water for her size as I was worried about ammonia building up between water changes, so I figured the more water the better
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. I have been doing daily water changes, but adding an airstone is no problem & will do that now.
 
I felt mean restricting Lotle to water she could only "crawl" around in but felt heaps better bout it after "The Great Axie Poop" of January 9th 2006
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After a second big poo the following day she ate heaps and became more active. (Being clogged up with gravel CAN'T be nice at all.) When she went back in the tank Lotle swam straight to the bottom and now only comes up for gulps of air and food of course!!

The moral of this tale??
Shallow water and a BIG POO fixed my axie, hopefully Akkie will start feeling much better too now! GOODLUCK
 
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