Illness/Sickness: Shrinking filaments??

[Eoiee]

Awhile back I had posted about my golden albino with swollen cloaca, unfortunately he passed away a couple of months back due to it.

I have since gotten a new wildtype (Mulder Junior) he's been great since but i have noticed recently his filaments on his gills have gotten a lot smaller than before.

I know the main cause of shrinkage is poor water conditions, currently my parameters are

0 Ammonia
0 Nitrites
5 Nitrates

temperature is always between 16-19 degrees, i change the water at least once a week and condition with prime, i also feed them outside the tank as to avoid as much spoilage in the water as possible.

There is very little current, i point the filter away against the glass to avoid as much disruption for them as possible, there is about 9 or 10 plants as well to help spread more oxygen in the water.

My Leucistic is in the same tank and shows no signs of any shrinkage of filaments and is quite a bit bigger than mulder.

Mulder eats but he is a lot smaller than scully, he has recently stopped eating worms and will only eat bloodworms or daphnia.

I'm worried there might be something more sinister causing it, he has no signs of fungus or infection from what i can see, the gills themselves are fine its just the filaments (feathery bits) have shrunk a lot.

Some pictures below to show the difference. The first is picture is when i first got him, and the rest are recently, not the best pictures but he's very hard to photo. but basically the filaments have reduced quite a lot.

 

[Eoiee]

Mulder has gotten much worse since, he hasn't eaten in two weeks and is extremely lethargic even so for an axolotl.

He is floating a lot and I noticed his slim coat is starting to shed bits of it, his tail is also slightly curled.

Since last Thursday I have taken him out of the tank and into a 10l tub and I change the water daily. Since that I've noticed he's began pooping stringy brown substance I'm not sure if it fits poop but it's very thin.

Scully my other axolotl in the tank is completly fine and my parameters are still all good.

All I can think of is that mulder did get a cut on his arm so I'm not sure if he is suffering from an infection but the wound has since healed.

I'm really not sure what to do

 

[emdalliance]

Hi Eoiee sorry nobody has replied sooner I know how scary it can be when things unexplainable go wrong.

It's a good idea to do what you're doing, i would keep him in the tub until you see signs of improvement. I'm having a water quality issue as of late and I can't figure out what's causing it to go bad, so quickly. So currently my lotls are all in tubs. One who had lovely Gill filaments has really lost a lot much like your Mulder and it's definitely due to poor water for myself.
If it was just the filaments Mulder was losing I'd say perhaps he just doesn't need them as it may be due to having lots of oxygen in the water.
But the other things are a bit concerning, as your temperature has been okay too. Tail curl can be signs of stress, floating when it's not temperature related can be internal problems like kidney issues. I had two axolotls do the same thing as what is happening to Mulder, however that was heat related, but I believe the heat may have brought on some sort of internal problems like kidney issues. They floated wouldn't eat and barely moved and didn't poop.

For the next week or so, just keep him very cool and in super clean water. He might improve. If not we might need to start you on some meds unfortunately.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Donna001]

Would you be able to post some pictures? It would be very helpful to see Mulder, and if you have poop pictures that might also help.
I think it is a good sign that he has started to poop. If he has been constipated for some reason (causing floating) it sounds as if this may be getting better.
Is his tail still curled? can you see any other symptoms?
Sorry about the questions, but the more information we have the easier it be to get to problem sorted.

 

[Eoiee]

Thank you both for replying unfortunately mulder died the morning after I posted. I had just begun to treat him with a black tea bath to help treat his slime coat but it seems it was all too late.

In reference to his tail curl it was really strange it was the length of the bottom of his tail slightly curled and not the tip so I knew his skin must of somehow been infected or damaged, it looked like it tearing slightly all along the bottom.

I'm really not sure it was poop that he was defecating as it looked very stringy, it could possibly of been really decomposed blood worms since that was what he last ate but that's all I can guess.

Sorry about not posting photos but he was really delicate so I didn't want to have to keep handling or moving him.

Mulder Sr died of something that was untreatable so I knew the inevitable would happen but Mulder Jr was perfect so I feel like I failed by not noticing it sooner.

As usual my scully is fine so I'll keep an extra eye on him the next while just to make sure.

 

[emdalliance]

Good luck with Scully, sorry for your loss ❤


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk