URGENT: Raised bumps, indent on spine, & has hardly eaten in 1.5 months!

[kaynels]

Hi Caudata, I could really use your expertise here. I feel like I've tried everything to no avail, and the earliest vet appointment I could find was in November and I need to be treating this now. My LFS has verified several times that I have great water quality (consistently pH 8, ammonia/nitrite 0, nitrate 10), and I can't figure out what's up.

Symptoms:
- Has hardly eaten in past 2 months, only a small earthworm chunk or two every week or so. Usually bites at weakly then spits out. Pellets/salmon don't seem to be of interest.
- Obviously deteriorating gills & slime coat.
- Weird indents and bumps have suddenly appeared on body this week, could be slime coat but unclear.
- Goes to surface for air more often (likely related to diminished gills)
- Pooped last week but seems semi-constipated
- Gills slightly curled, tail is sometimes curled as well. Obviously stressed.

Hypothesis:
- Fungal &/or bacterial infection.
- Refused to eat based on temperature/nitrate spike stress
- Perhaps was gravid and is absorbing eggs?

Attempted Treatments:
-Tea baths/tubbing
-More tannins (IAL)
-Extra care to pristine water quality (has been mostly stable with a few minor nitrate and temperature spikes in past 4 months)

Current Proposed Treatment Plan:
- Tubbing & gentle methelyne blue baths (recommended by 2 different breeders)
- Recude temperature and nitrate spikes by moving from 29g to 55g aquarium in a colder room

MORE DETAILS:
Suspected mature female, 11 months old, 11 inches. 29gal natural planted tank. Only tank mates are red cherry shrimp, bred in house, no new ones added in 6 months. Extremely fine sand substrate (exo terra riverbed), impaction unlikely. Cycled. Tank is usually around 65-68 degrees in the summer, 63-4 in winter.

History: I struggled with some light fungus this summer due to abnormal heat waves in my area that got the tank to ~71 a few times, and a nitrate spike when I was out of town. I've had some recurring fungus issues since May, you can see my other post in my account history.

I noticed just yesterday a few weird bumps and indents on my axolotl's skin (or perhaps slime coat?). For the past month they've had a very slow appetite, only a small chunk of worm every week or so, and I'd suspected it was because they were losing eggs after being gravid.

Today I'm starting tubbing and tea bath treatments, then moving to methylene blue treatment on Wednesday when it arrives in the mail, and then they'll be transferred to the new 55g tank. I'm really not sure what's going on here and it's really stressing me out, any insight, recommendations, or similar experiences would be extremely helpful.

 

[kaynels]

Here are some pictures that better show the raised white bumps, and indent on the spine.

 

[AxelTheAxolotl123]

I’m not an expert but I would put Him in the fridge to get him to poop and try some way to get him not stressed and then try to do something about the bumps I wish I could help more.

 

[axie owner]

i recommend getting him on some indian almond leaf ASAP.

 

[kaynels]

I've got IAL in the tubs (and always have tannins in my tanks, they're 100% natural with driftwood and lots of IAL at all times), and am doing 2x tea baths per day while I wait for methelyne blue to arrive tomorrow.

I got better pictures today and believe now that this is primarily a slime coat and fungus issue, caused by summer temperatures. I'm tubbing at 63F, and working on getting my new tank to a similar temperature before moving them in.