Swollen Lips, Please Help

[coen]

Hi everyone!

I have a problem. The lips of my axie seem to be swollen. I have no idea how this could happen. He already had slighty swollen lips when I bought him, but since a couple of weeks it's starting to get worse. I've included some photo's so you can see the problem:

I hope you guys know anything that could help... He seems to be very happy and vivrant though.

Greetings,

Coen Deurloo

 

[luke]

it almost looks like it blistered. I'm sure someone will be along soon to help.

 

[coen]

I hope so too.....

Again, it doesn't seem to bother him. But it can't be good!

 

[sharn]

im not sure if its bad or not but if its gotten worse im not sure, hopefully ed or joan will help ya on this one. my wildtype has funny lips but i can only see them because theyre lighter, i assume that the others are like that too but i cant see them cause theyre all the same colour

 

[coen]

Thanks,

Please, anyone.... HELP!!!!

 

[edward]

There are a number of potential causes of this, and an biopsy is the only way to detemine what is causing the symtoms.

One of the most likely causes would be due to damage before you aquired the animal.

Ed

 

[joão]

EDo you feed him with frozen food, still frozen? You know about a case that a axie eat directly from the cube and his lips became swollen like that.

 

[coen]

Joao, that could be the case, though I've never seen him eat a block of frozen blood worms so far, it could be the case. It seems to be reducing now.

 

[coen]

Unfortunatly, I found him dead in his tank this morning. Does anyone know what could be the cause of this? he ate a water spider that came in with a plant I found in the pond a couple of days ago...

This is so sad

(Message edited by coendeurloo on May 09, 2006)

 

[coen]

Anyone?

 

[luke]

The water spider may have bitten him on the lips before he was consumed, thus causing the puffyness. Or he died from the poison.

 

[ian]

The gravel on the photo seems to be very rough'its not crushed coral is it?,the axie could harm his lips whilst trying to feed on the small bloodworms.Its best to use smooth type pea gravel and axies can eat larger food like chopped earthworm or beef heart which won't sink down into the substrate.do you have filtration in the tank?and did you cycle it.

 

[coen]

Luke, the lips were like that before he ate the spider.

Ian, I had rough gravel first but it's sand for quite a while now, not crushed coral. it seems bigger because of the macro photo I guess.

BTW, the spider seemed quite harmless....

(Message edited by coendeurloo on May 10, 2006)

 

[luke]

What seems harmless to us may indeed be deadly to other species. Such as the daddy long legs, its poison when it bites us humans doesn't have any effect but to other spiders its deadly, and some other creatures too.

An yeh after posting i realised it wan't the spider that caused the lip problem, but that and eating a spider probably did it.

 

[sharn]

sorry for your loss

im careful with anything that can contain deterrants to other animals as it can be poisionous, spiders (i cant touch them anyway) i would be very careful with unless it didnt contain any venom. i dont feed any species of bug that i havent read lots about being eaten for the mere fact i dont know enough about them to be able to judge if they might cause a problem. however it may have not been the spider, guess we wont know for sure unless an autopsy is done if you really want to know. it may have been something to do with whatever caused the lips to swell?

once again, sorry for your loss

 

[coen]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Anyone here with a solid idea on what could have been the problem? I would like to avoid this in the future so...

 

[ian]

I would say the problem with the lips didn't cause the death of your axie as it looks like old scar tissue.I don't think a water spider would have the venom to kill him(i could be wrong).Did you cycle your tank ,a sudden build up of ammonia could cause problems.

 

[coen]

it was a while ago when I cycled the tank, but I have a good filter system, plus some live plants...The other axie is just fine, though I've placed him in quarantaine now just to be sure..

could an escaped earthworm cause the buildup in ammonia? when it crawls under a stone and dies for instance? Or are fecies the biggest ammonia increasers? Still, I can't imagine it would kill him...since the other is fine, and the tank looked very clear and healthy...

 

[ian]

Anything decomposing in the tank gives off ammonia but from what you say i don't think this was your problem.Sometimes when feeding off the bottom they can swallow some gravel which can lead to a blockage but if yours was feeding and seemed quite happy and the death was sudden i can't see that as the problem.I didn't realize you had two in the tank,was he being bullied,could stress be a factor.I am grasping at straws now,maybe we will never know.

 

[pablo]

Coen: can you take some photos of your tank? to see the full lay out, and see what you got there. My axie was ill, and I took out all new staff, like an Algae, which was in the store where i bought it and a rock I put inside, that i think was the problem, cause the test determinate that i had some metal in the water.
now his better