wholelotlaxolotl
New member
Hello,
My axolotl, Beans, recently seems to have been shedding her slime coat and am worried about the potential for getting worse. Jelly and Beans, our two axolotls, are situated in the basement and we live in MD, where the only time we run into an issue with temp is in the summer here and there...even in the basement. Jelly was very lucky and did not have any noticeable issues during this period. I believe Beans began to shed due to a temperature spike we had about a week ago where the water hit up to 73 degrees w fan. The freezer went out and our water bottles and ice became water. Quite the panic fest..
We are back to our fans and our ice bottles and the temperature has been keeping around 64-67 degrees, but Beans is still having some shed come off. Beans is eating normally and moving around and hanging out as normal, but I want to ensure that she will be able to get her slime coat back. It does appear to be getting better, but I am not certain. It is not becoming worse.
They are both housed in a 30 gallon, with two filters. I have attached pictures below. It's hard to see, but they are the small whitish "patches" on one side her body(nemo hand side). If she moves quickly, some comes off into the water. Her little "nemo" hand has been with her ever since we got her from the local pet shop. Her gills seem to be okay, There is no whitish growth or fuzz on her gills, but there has been a time or two where she has erratically kicked-do you think it may not actually be her slime coat, but a fungus?
Our water parameters according to our API test kit are:
Ammonia: 0-.25PPM
Nitrate 20-30PPM
Nitrite: 0 PPM
Ph 7.2
Water hardness(test strip pack): between hard and very hard, leaning closer to hard.
These numbers were from yesterday, w. no water change. We do a 20% water change every Monday, every other Monday is 30%. My husband has talked about potentially fridging and salt bathing, but I am worried about going two steps too far and actually ending up making it worse. We decided it would be best to ask some others first. Do you think that keeping the water temps low, and maintaining our water quality will be enough for this to heal? What else would you suggest? Do you think it was because of the temperature spike? Maybe a fungus? Please help us help our little baby.
Extra: We have almond leaves and have just put one in the water yesterday. Beans tail is straight and we have not seen her gills face forwards in a way that is unnatural for her yet. Her diet consists of red worms/salmon pellets/night crawlers/ghost shrimp & frozen beefheart as treat.
My axolotl, Beans, recently seems to have been shedding her slime coat and am worried about the potential for getting worse. Jelly and Beans, our two axolotls, are situated in the basement and we live in MD, where the only time we run into an issue with temp is in the summer here and there...even in the basement. Jelly was very lucky and did not have any noticeable issues during this period. I believe Beans began to shed due to a temperature spike we had about a week ago where the water hit up to 73 degrees w fan. The freezer went out and our water bottles and ice became water. Quite the panic fest..
We are back to our fans and our ice bottles and the temperature has been keeping around 64-67 degrees, but Beans is still having some shed come off. Beans is eating normally and moving around and hanging out as normal, but I want to ensure that she will be able to get her slime coat back. It does appear to be getting better, but I am not certain. It is not becoming worse.
They are both housed in a 30 gallon, with two filters. I have attached pictures below. It's hard to see, but they are the small whitish "patches" on one side her body(nemo hand side). If she moves quickly, some comes off into the water. Her little "nemo" hand has been with her ever since we got her from the local pet shop. Her gills seem to be okay, There is no whitish growth or fuzz on her gills, but there has been a time or two where she has erratically kicked-do you think it may not actually be her slime coat, but a fungus?
Our water parameters according to our API test kit are:
Ammonia: 0-.25PPM
Nitrate 20-30PPM
Nitrite: 0 PPM
Ph 7.2
Water hardness(test strip pack): between hard and very hard, leaning closer to hard.
These numbers were from yesterday, w. no water change. We do a 20% water change every Monday, every other Monday is 30%. My husband has talked about potentially fridging and salt bathing, but I am worried about going two steps too far and actually ending up making it worse. We decided it would be best to ask some others first. Do you think that keeping the water temps low, and maintaining our water quality will be enough for this to heal? What else would you suggest? Do you think it was because of the temperature spike? Maybe a fungus? Please help us help our little baby.
Extra: We have almond leaves and have just put one in the water yesterday. Beans tail is straight and we have not seen her gills face forwards in a way that is unnatural for her yet. Her diet consists of red worms/salmon pellets/night crawlers/ghost shrimp & frozen beefheart as treat.
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