Sick adult Axolotl

[Ziti]

Hi,
Things are still not going well with Ziti. He has white spots on his gills, is uninterested in eating, and is very lethargic. Once I saw him trying to "scratch" his gills with his hind legs; it broke my heart. This decline to me came on suddenly. I was away for a week and this degradation of health started. I did a water test and it seems that his pH is 6.0 which I believe is low, nitrate, and ammonia are fine. So far I have put crushed coral in the tank, given him tea baths, and put almond leaves. Is there anything else I can do for him? While reading some materials about Axolotols one author stated MinnFinn Mini-broad spectrum should be used. I am reaching out to this group as I feel it will provide me with better guidance.

Thanks!!

 

[wolfen]

because of the low ph the cycle might have crashed and may require testing.
what are your nitrite levels
test your kh and gh.
use 50% holtfreters + 0.1g/l magnesium sulphate.
the holtfreters will help to balance/buffer the ph as well as providing beneficial salts and minerals (will also help protect against ammonia swings which will happen as the cycle corrects itself as well as protecting against fungal infections)
give daily methylene blue baths.
although there is no information on the inactive ingredients for MinnFinn Mini-broad spectrum the active ingredients are hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid, hydrogen peroxide will cause some damage to your biological filtration (although not a lot as it can help provide additional oxygen) advisable to dose 24hrs after treatment with bottled bacteria, will cause some irritation to your axolotl and will cause above normal surface gulping until hydrogen peroxide is broken down, peracetic acid will act as a fungicide but will also affect your ph, although it may affect your biological filtration once broken down it will act as a source of carbon which bacteria will consume (although marked as separate components peracetic acid is acetic acid combine with hydrogen peroxide), peracetic acid will cause some irritation to your axolotl.

 

[Ziti]

Thank you so much for the information, it is appreciated as this is my son's first axolotl. One other thing that occurred, while I was away, my son came home and realized the chiller had quit working and the temp showed 82F He immediately tubbed Ziti in a cooler tub of water (we use API Tap Water conditioner)
I just hope I'm not too late in Ziti recovering.

 

[wolfen]

make sure it is only a dechlorinator and doesn't contain stress coat as api stress coat contain aloe vera which is bad for axolotls.

 

[Ziti]

Oh, thank you for that information, my son and I did use Stress Coat. Crap!