OAE77
New member
Had read of others feeding axies earth worms so I tried it. I rinsed a worm in really hot water then cut in half & fed half by hand to each of my axies. The very next day my larger axie was floating & had white cloudyish looking stuff on his gills (see picture 1) & was hardly moving. Both axies had massive loss of gills at this point.
Background: I have had the larger one for three years & know how to keep the water safe & clean tanks & switch some water weekly. Each axie was in a 20 gallon long but decided when the green one was large enough to put them together & they seem to really enjoy the company so now I'm upgrading to a 40 gallon next time I see a good tank sale. They have been together a few months & never had any issues. I am pretty sure this is related to the worm. I feed pellets & minnows normally.
After I found them looking horrible I immediately moved them to clean water with a low dose of melafix & put them in the fridge overnight. That didn't seem to help much so I have been salt bathing them for 2 days & keeping them in cooler water & in the basement to keep water nice & cold. They look better & are eating pellets again but not really having much of an appetite. I know they can have decreased appetite with cold but this seems more so like they are sick & weak. Most of the white stuff has come off of their gills at this point. See picture 2. There are no vets in this area. I have contacted a vet a state away who has treated salamanders I had years ago & have not heard back from him yet.
Anyone have advice on what to do at this point? I read that you shouldn't salt bathe more than 3 days & melafix shouldn't be used for a very long period either. I'm not sure if I should move them back to their tank or not yet. I have entirely drained the tank & rinsed everything with scalding hot water several times to sterilize. The white axie appears super pink & I can see his blood vessels, I know this happens with fridging however it has been 2 days now & he looks really pink. Usually even in pretty cold water he is a nice white color this is not his normal (see picture 3 when he was fine).
Background: I have had the larger one for three years & know how to keep the water safe & clean tanks & switch some water weekly. Each axie was in a 20 gallon long but decided when the green one was large enough to put them together & they seem to really enjoy the company so now I'm upgrading to a 40 gallon next time I see a good tank sale. They have been together a few months & never had any issues. I am pretty sure this is related to the worm. I feed pellets & minnows normally.
After I found them looking horrible I immediately moved them to clean water with a low dose of melafix & put them in the fridge overnight. That didn't seem to help much so I have been salt bathing them for 2 days & keeping them in cooler water & in the basement to keep water nice & cold. They look better & are eating pellets again but not really having much of an appetite. I know they can have decreased appetite with cold but this seems more so like they are sick & weak. Most of the white stuff has come off of their gills at this point. See picture 2. There are no vets in this area. I have contacted a vet a state away who has treated salamanders I had years ago & have not heard back from him yet.
Anyone have advice on what to do at this point? I read that you shouldn't salt bathe more than 3 days & melafix shouldn't be used for a very long period either. I'm not sure if I should move them back to their tank or not yet. I have entirely drained the tank & rinsed everything with scalding hot water several times to sterilize. The white axie appears super pink & I can see his blood vessels, I know this happens with fridging however it has been 2 days now & he looks really pink. Usually even in pretty cold water he is a nice white color this is not his normal (see picture 3 when he was fine).
