ksparks519
New member
Picture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxZM0mG5THtHb1AzXzg0OGFacDQ/view?usp=sharing
Our 2 axolotls are having a lot of trouble with a gill infection. The picture above is Achiote, our leucistic female, who has the worse infection by far. Tomatl, the wild type, has always been healthier and hungrier than Achiote, but the infection has just spread to him this morning.
Symptoms have been very similar to this thread:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...-very-aggressive-gill-fungus-please-help.html
Little bits of fluff started showing up on Achiote about 3 days ago, and now about 2/3 of her gills are gone. We started salt baths two days ago, but it has only gotten worse. We moved both axolotls into separate containers in the fridge this morning. We went to the good lfs in town and tried to find some sort of medicine for fungus and/or bacteria listed as safe on this page:
Axolotls - Health & Diseases
They only carried methylene blue, furan 2, and melafix. We picked up some methylene blue and I've added 1 drop to each container (the package said 10 drops per 1 gallon, and they are both in about half a liter).
When we checked on them this evening, it looks like they are sloughing off hunks of mucous all over their bodies. Is this a normal immune response in axolotls? It's hard to tell if their gills are any better or worse, but one of Tomatl's gills has begun to shrink (maybe some old damage just fell off?).
I think this has to do with a recent spike in tank bioload. The tank is usually around 70/72 F (21/22 C), which is the best we've been able to do without ice cubes. We keep feeder fish (cloud mountain minnows and guppies, usually between 5 and a dozen, depending on how fast they get eaten) and ramshorn snail in the tank with them. The snail population exploded over the holidays while we were traveling, so I removed as many as I could and added an assassin snail to try to control them. They were originally there to be food for our pea puffers in another tank, but I'd be happy to get rid of them at this point. The tank is a 10 gallon with a sponge filter and lots of hides. I added a HOB filter, which will eventually replace the sponge filter, to try to cycle ammonia faster in the future. I think the flow from the filter is pretty well dissipated by the slate caves in the tank.
Sorry about the short essay, we're just very worried about our little guys.
TLDR
Axolotls sick with gill fungus/infection
Infection progressed quickly despite salt baths
Seems to be contagious
Axolotls hanging out in fridge
Treating with methylene blue
Questions:
1. Any advice at all would be great (ok, not a question).
2. Is the methylene blue a good idea?
3. Should I treat for an hour or two and then change water, or should I let them hang out in it all day?
4. Is my dosage too high?
5. Is there a better medicine or treatment for this problem?
6. Should I treat their tank with something? If so, what could I put in there that won't hurt fish or plants?
Thanks so much!
-Kyle & Michelle
Our 2 axolotls are having a lot of trouble with a gill infection. The picture above is Achiote, our leucistic female, who has the worse infection by far. Tomatl, the wild type, has always been healthier and hungrier than Achiote, but the infection has just spread to him this morning.
Symptoms have been very similar to this thread:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...-very-aggressive-gill-fungus-please-help.html
Little bits of fluff started showing up on Achiote about 3 days ago, and now about 2/3 of her gills are gone. We started salt baths two days ago, but it has only gotten worse. We moved both axolotls into separate containers in the fridge this morning. We went to the good lfs in town and tried to find some sort of medicine for fungus and/or bacteria listed as safe on this page:
Axolotls - Health & Diseases
They only carried methylene blue, furan 2, and melafix. We picked up some methylene blue and I've added 1 drop to each container (the package said 10 drops per 1 gallon, and they are both in about half a liter).
When we checked on them this evening, it looks like they are sloughing off hunks of mucous all over their bodies. Is this a normal immune response in axolotls? It's hard to tell if their gills are any better or worse, but one of Tomatl's gills has begun to shrink (maybe some old damage just fell off?).
I think this has to do with a recent spike in tank bioload. The tank is usually around 70/72 F (21/22 C), which is the best we've been able to do without ice cubes. We keep feeder fish (cloud mountain minnows and guppies, usually between 5 and a dozen, depending on how fast they get eaten) and ramshorn snail in the tank with them. The snail population exploded over the holidays while we were traveling, so I removed as many as I could and added an assassin snail to try to control them. They were originally there to be food for our pea puffers in another tank, but I'd be happy to get rid of them at this point. The tank is a 10 gallon with a sponge filter and lots of hides. I added a HOB filter, which will eventually replace the sponge filter, to try to cycle ammonia faster in the future. I think the flow from the filter is pretty well dissipated by the slate caves in the tank.
Sorry about the short essay, we're just very worried about our little guys.
TLDR
Axolotls sick with gill fungus/infection
Infection progressed quickly despite salt baths
Seems to be contagious
Axolotls hanging out in fridge
Treating with methylene blue
Questions:
1. Any advice at all would be great (ok, not a question).
2. Is the methylene blue a good idea?
3. Should I treat for an hour or two and then change water, or should I let them hang out in it all day?
4. Is my dosage too high?
5. Is there a better medicine or treatment for this problem?
6. Should I treat their tank with something? If so, what could I put in there that won't hurt fish or plants?
Thanks so much!
-Kyle & Michelle