What should I do next?

[epicbattle]

Sgt Pepper, my ~5" melanoid axolotl, recently developed a fungal infection on 2 of his gills. It started with the affected gills being curled forward(the others were all relaxed) but I didn't notice any fluff at that time, nor any injuries. I looked for changes in his environment(water parameters, changes in the room itself, etc.) but couldn't find any cause of stress or injury that wasn't there before(I'll talk about water quality in a bit) Since he appeared to be otherwise healthy, I decided to wait and see if anything came of it. Then the fluff appeared! Not sure if the fungus appeared due to a gill injury, or if the fungus was the sole cause of the bothered gills, but fungus happened. It was hardly any when I noticed, so I left it overnight(last night) with plans to get some stuff to treat it the next afternoon(today). When I checked on him this morning, the fluff had tripled in size and the gill frills had become sort of limp and shriveled so I changed plans and decided to go to the pet store as soon as it opened. That time was a couple hours away, so in the meantime I transferred Sgt Pepper to a bin with 3 gallons of water, matching the aquarium temperature(14C) and set a laptop cooler over the water to maintain that temperature(which is has done precisely). I didn't treat the tapwater at all: the only treatments used on my town's tap water are physical filtration, UV sterilization, and chlorine additive(no chloramine), so I figured I could leave the chlorine for a couple hours to work on the fungus before adding any dechlorinator. I went to the store and got some almond leaves, and added Seachem Prime to the bin when I returned(giving Sgt Pepper about 2 hours in chlorinated water) Made a strong tea by boiling almond leaves for a couple minutes, then cooled and diluted it in a jug. I added enough to the bin to make the water yellowish. I also threw in a couple marimo moss balls and a small bag of cycled filter media. I've never heard of anyone adding the marimo balls or filter media to a "hospital" bin, but I thought it might help maintain water quality between changes. Now, about 10 hours after beginning treatment, I am already seeing improvement. His gill frills look healthy again, but the affected gills are a bit droopy and still have some fungus on them(though less than this morning).


So with all that explained, I have some questions about what I've already done:
1) Should I have fridged Sgt Pepper, or maybe lowered the temperature even more? 14C seemed adequately cold by my judgement, but I don't have much experience with axolotls.
2) Would salt baths be more or less effective than chlorine exposure? Obviously it's much harder to gauge the strength of treatment with simple chlorine exposure, but I wonder how much it differs from salt bath treatment. I imagine salt baths would be more stressful.
3) Obviously my almond leaf tea is an unknown concentration. Does anybody have a "recipe" for properly dosed almond leaf treatment, or is it okay to just judge by effect whether it needs to be made stronger?
4) Are the moss balls and filter media really doing anything for me, or should I get rid of them? I do wonder if the bacteria in the filter media will be dying anyway from the almond leaf tea...

And finally back to the title of this thread...What should I do next? Currently, my plan is to do daily water changes, every time giving Sgt Pepper 2 hours before dechlorinating the water, and every day adding almond leaf tea to the water. I would continue this treatment until he appears completely healthy, and then probably another day or 2 after that. But first I'd like to know whether anyone has any suggestions that might improve my treatment plan. Also, should I feed him? I think if I do, I would do so right before a water change to make sure nothing gets left behind to mess up the water parameters.



Now, I'd like to bring up a parallel discussion on water parameters, as my readings haven't changed at all since I first got my axies, but I would like to know if they are problematic at all. Nitrates and nitrites are always at 0, without exception, which is awesome. pH and ammonia levels, however, are not as ideal as I'd like. My water comes from the tap with a pH of 7.8 and stays at this level after treatment and after being in the aquarium for any amount of time. It's not terribly high, but it's a bit higher than what is normally recommended for axolotls. Should I be taking any measures to reduce my pH? The ammonia reading for my aquarium is always around 0.3ppm, which I find weird. I've tried a couple different ammonia test kits(liquid), as well as a digital meter borrowed from the lab, and they all agree I've got constant ammonia around 0.3ppm. It doesn't fluctuate, so I thought my axies would get acclimated to it. Is this something I should address? I checked the water that Sgt Pepper is being treated in now, and tested it throughout the day. Obviously it started at 0. Within about 4 hours it rose to 0.5ppm and has stayed at that level all day. Should I be concerned about this? I'll test it again tomorrow morning before I change the water.

 

[Boomsloth]

Sgt Pepper, my ~5" melanoid axolotl, recently developed a fungal infection on 2 of his gills. It started with the affected gills being curled forward(the others were all relaxed) but I didn't notice any fluff at that time, nor any injuries. I looked for changes in his environment(water parameters, changes in the room itself, etc.) but couldn't find any cause of stress or injury that wasn't there before(I'll talk about water quality in a bit) Since he appeared to be otherwise healthy, I decided to wait and see if anything came of it. Then the fluff appeared! Not sure if the fungus appeared due to a gill injury, or if the fungus was the sole cause of the bothered gills, but fungus happened. It was hardly any when I noticed, so I left it overnight(last night) with plans to get some stuff to treat it the next afternoon(today). When I checked on him this morning, the fluff had tripled in size and the gill frills had become sort of limp and shriveled so I changed plans and decided to go to the pet store as soon as it opened. That time was a couple hours away, so in the meantime I transferred Sgt Pepper to a bin with 3 gallons of water, matching the aquarium temperature(14C) and set a laptop cooler over the water to maintain that temperature(which is has done precisely). I didn't treat the tapwater at all: the only treatments used on my town's tap water are physical filtration, UV sterilization, and chlorine additive(no chloramine), so I figured I could leave the chlorine for a couple hours to work on the fungus before adding any dechlorinator. I went to the store and got some almond leaves, and added Seachem Prime to the bin when I returned(giving Sgt Pepper about 2 hours in chlorinated water) Made a strong tea by boiling almond leaves for a couple minutes, then cooled and diluted it in a jug. I added enough to the bin to make the water yellowish. I also threw in a couple marimo moss balls and a small bag of cycled filter media. I've never heard of anyone adding the marimo balls or filter media to a "hospital" bin, but I thought it might help maintain water quality between changes. Now, about 10 hours after beginning treatment, I am already seeing improvement. His gill frills look healthy again, but the affected gills are a bit droopy and still have some fungus on them(though less than this morning).


So with all that explained, I have some questions about what I've already done:
1) Should I have fridged Sgt Pepper, or maybe lowered the temperature even more? 14C seemed adequately cold by my judgement, but I don't have much experience with axolotls.
2) Would salt baths be more or less effective than chlorine exposure? Obviously it's much harder to gauge the strength of treatment with simple chlorine exposure, but I wonder how much it differs from salt bath treatment. I imagine salt baths would be more stressful.
3) Obviously my almond leaf tea is an unknown concentration. Does anybody have a "recipe" for properly dosed almond leaf treatment, or is it okay to just judge by effect whether it needs to be made stronger?
4) Are the moss balls and filter media really doing anything for me, or should I get rid of them? I do wonder if the bacteria in the filter media will be dying anyway from the almond leaf tea...

And finally back to the title of this thread...What should I do next? Currently, my plan is to do daily water changes, every time giving Sgt Pepper 2 hours before dechlorinating the water, and every day adding almond leaf tea to the water. I would continue this treatment until he appears completely healthy, and then probably another day or 2 after that. But first I'd like to know whether anyone has any suggestions that might improve my treatment plan. Also, should I feed him? I think if I do, I would do so right before a water change to make sure nothing gets left behind to mess up the water parameters.



Now, I'd like to bring up a parallel discussion on water parameters, as my readings haven't changed at all since I first got my axies, but I would like to know if they are problematic at all. Nitrates and nitrites are always at 0, without exception, which is awesome. pH and ammonia levels, however, are not as ideal as I'd like. My water comes from the tap with a pH of 7.8 and stays at this level after treatment and after being in the aquarium for any amount of time. It's not terribly high, but it's a bit higher than what is normally recommended for axolotls. Should I be taking any measures to reduce my pH? The ammonia reading for my aquarium is always around 0.3ppm, which I find weird. I've tried a couple different ammonia test kits(liquid), as well as a digital meter borrowed from the lab, and they all agree I've got constant ammonia around 0.3ppm. It doesn't fluctuate, so I thought my axies would get acclimated to it. Is this something I should address? I checked the water that Sgt Pepper is being treated in now, and tested it throughout the day. Obviously it started at 0. Within about 4 hours it rose to 0.5ppm and has stayed at that level all day. Should I be concerned about this? I'll test it again tomorrow morning before I change the water.

I know that the filter media won't do anything since the chlorine would have killed any beneficial bacteria. I really think your axolotl got a fungal infection because your tank is not even close to being cycled. Are you using untreated chlorinated tap water for your water changes? You should be seeing some nitrates to prove your system is converting ammonia into nitrates.

 

[epicbattle]

I know that the filter media won't do anything since the chlorine would have killed any beneficial bacteria. I really think your axolotl got a fungal infection because your tank is not even close to being cycled. Are you using untreated chlorinated tap water for your water changes? You should be seeing some nitrates to prove your system is converting ammonia into nitrates.

The filter media was added only after the water was dechlorinated. I use dechlorinated water for my aquarium water changes, but for the hospital bin I wanted to use the chlorine to help treat the fungal infection. I thought my tank was cycled, because I had cycled it with fish for 10 weeks before swapping out the fish for my axolotls and the water parameters had stopped fluctuating at that point. Did I misinterpret my readings? Does the ammonia mean that my bacteria all died or something?

 

[epicbattle]

This morning Sgt Pepper's gills looked perfectly healthy again and there was no visible trace of fungus remaining :happy: Nonetheless, I went ahead with my treatment plan. Before changing his water, I fed him(he was begging for food). I gave him 2 hours with chlorinated water before dechlorinating it and adding the almond leaf tea. Again, I didn't put in the moss balls or filter media until after I had dechlorinated the water(I waited a while to let the Prime disperse, of course). The water parameters from yesterday's water had not changed overnight.

He seems happy and healthy, so I'm glad things worked out. I think tomorrow I'll skip the chlorine treatment and just give him 1 more day with the almond leaf tea(in fresh water, of course)

But even though he's recovering nicely, I'd still like some input on my methods. And any advice regarding the ammonia content of my aquarium would be welcome as well. I couldn't find any information on what numbers I want for ammonia readings, so I figured a steady low would be okay since there hasn't been any fluctuations since the tank finished cycling, but please correct me if I'm wrong. (plenty of sources told me that 0 for nitrates and nitrites was ideal, so I was happy about that, but is this not correct information?)

 

[Kaini]

(plenty of sources told me that 0 for nitrates and nitrites was ideal, so I was happy about that, but is this not correct information?)

Incorrect. In a cycled tank, your readings should be:

0 ammonia (at all times)
0 nitrites
and around 20ppm nitrates.

Your tank is not cycled.

Nitrates are the final product of the nitrogen cycle and there SHOULD be some showing if your tank is cycled properly. 0 nitrates means no cycle. Nitrate is the least toxic of the three and a small amount is fine in a freshwater tank. Weekly water changes keep it down.



I'm... not too sure about your method so maybe someone else can weigh in here, but I personally would not have exposed him to chlorine. but I'm glad he's looking better.

 

[epicbattle]

Incorrect. In a cycled tank, your readings should be:

0 ammonia (at all times)
0 nitrites
and around 20ppm nitrates.

Your tank is not cycled.

Nitrates are the final product of the nitrogen cycle and there SHOULD be some showing if your tank is cycled properly. 0 nitrates means no cycle. Nitrate is the least toxic of the three and a small amount is fine in a freshwater tank. Weekly water changes keep it down.



I'm... not too sure about your method so maybe someone else can weigh in here, but I personally would not have exposed him to chlorine. but I'm glad he's looking better.

Thanks! Any ideas why my tank ended up the way it did? You'd think there would at least be fluctuations in the ammonia levels if the tank isn't cycled. I'm quite baffled by my readings Should I try cycling my tank again from scratch? Not really sure what to do with the axies if that's the case.

As for the chlorine strategy, I actually got the idea from these forums. Videos I saw of salt baths made it seem pretty stressful in comparison, so that's why I opted for chlorine.

 

[Boomsloth]

Thanks! Any ideas why my tank ended up the way it did? You'd think there would at least be fluctuations in the ammonia levels if the tank isn't cycled. I'm quite baffled by my readings Should I try cycling my tank again from scratch? Not really sure what to do with the axies if that's the case.

As for the chlorine strategy, I actually got the idea from these forums. Videos I saw of salt baths made it seem pretty stressful in comparison, so that's why I opted for chlorine.

A cycled tank is a balance of nitrifying bacteria and ammonia production. Sometimes people crash their cycle by adding chlorine to their tank which kills the bacteria. It doesn't take much to crash a cycle. Mine crashed when I lost power for a few hours and my filter dried out. If you are going to recycle your tank you'll need to monitor the water parameters religiously making sure ammonia and nitrite never go above 0.25ppm, if your axolotl is in the tank. You can also do fishless cycling but then will end up doing 100% water changes daily for whatever container your axolotl is in. You'll need to look up fishless cycling.