Salt bath making axolotl sick?

[ForeverGarzone]

Well I figure I might as well ask all my questions before I get kicked outta here for asking too many

I've been salt bathing my baby melanoid for the past two days because of a cottony while growth on his gill. The growth has disappeared but I noticed once we started part of the gills looked eaten off, and I'm not entirely sure what happened.

Anyways during tonights salt bath (second one of the day, at 2 tsp to 1 liter of water) he started .. gagging? I'm not sure how to describe it so I took a video to help.

Should I stop the baths? Since the cotton growth is gone I'm not sure it's necessary anymore and I don't wanna harm him with the salt! Here's a photo of his gills (if it isn't good enough I can break out the actual camera, this was just taken with my phone) and a video of his behavior.

 

[Jen10s]

Sorry you didn't get an earlier reply.

If you haven't already, you can probably stop the salt baths now if the fungus has disappeared. The damage to the gills would likely be the salt so as long as your water parameters are good and you keep the temperature down, they should start to grow back - this can take some time though. Good luck and post more pics when she/he starts to get better :happy:

PS - don't worry about the "gagging", they all do it from time to time, they sometimes yawn too!

 

[ForeverGarzone]

Sorry you didn't get an earlier reply.

If you haven't already, you can probably stop the salt baths now if the fungus has disappeared. The damage to the gills would likely be the salt so as long as your water parameters are good and you keep the temperature down, they should start to grow back - this can take some time though. Good luck and post more pics when she/he starts to get better :happy:

PS - don't worry about the "gagging", they all do it from time to time, they sometimes yawn too!

Oh it's no problem, thank you for the response! I actually didn't do a salt bath on him last night because he seemed okay. No visible fungus and I didn't want to stress him out if it wasn't a necessity. I did however lower his water level because he looked like he was having a floating issue.

I want to try and ween him out of the fridge soon, he looks so tiny from not eating I tried blood worms and a chopped up earthworm and he just ignores it all! I know it slows their metabolism, I just feel bad!

And okay, as long as it was normal! He started it once he was in the salt bath so I was scared it was effecting him negatively!

 

[Jen10s]

Glad to hear the fungus has cleared up

Unless he seems constipated, I would also take him out of the fridge. Fridging is mostly for constipation or gravel impaction and salt baths can be done without fridging.

His appetite will probably improve once he goes back into his tank, keep offering the earthworms (chopped if necessary, no wider than his head) and bloodworms. If he still won't eat, maybe you can get some live black worms for him, mine love those but only get them as a treat now as they are expensive over here.

Keep a close eye on your water parameters and his gills will be beautiful again. Look forward to some pics when he is back to his old self :happy: