Eating trouble?

[Fee]

I posted recently about my axie whom I snatched from the jaws of death in a lst minute rescue. I have read everything that you guys suggested, and I *think* I've covered all the bases to the best of my ability. In the first day or so that I had him, he seemed to be exploring for food, and over the first night, he ate a whole cube of thawed bloodworms from his dish. All good. Yesterday, he ate a big earthworm from my hand. I left some bloodworm in the dish overnight as we did a quick dash to the cabin. He hadn't eaten them when I returned. I tried him with an earthworm a couple of times, and he snapped and snapped at it, but didn't manage to get it down. Then he seemed all scared and fled to his hiding place. He was obviously interested, but no dice. Is this normal? Could he still be a little full from the previous worm? It was pretty big, and he's not very big. I'll try more bloodworm overnight. I've been religious about the 20% water changes, and siphoning out the poo and uneaten bloodworms. I'm sort of in a state about his well-being....just want him to be alright so badly. (on a happy note, my big rough-skinned newt, Jemma, downed a worm the size of a small snake! This is a little cheer-up...)

[Kirst]

Hello

Can you please show us your Parameters, temperature, subtrate and how long have you had your axolotl please ?

The refusal of food relates to stress such as water quality. Well done for cleaning 20% water changes your doing a great job.

[Fee]

He's on fine sand, not marine or beach. Water has been properly treated. Ph is normal, no nitrites, ammonia is between .5 & 1 ppm. Doing the water changes religiously, as I said. Temperature is about 17 at the moment. Hot summer days, but he's in a cool alcove, with no light to add heat. JAva fern in the tank, along with suitable hidey-holes. As I said, this was an emergency rescue. I've had newts for years, so I'm not new to all this, but never an axie, so I'm sure new to that part! Thanks for the attention.

[Kirst]

It is nice to here people like you , I really appreciate the rescue of newts.

Ammonia is the only trouble I know because it must not be over 0ppm so the 20% water changes daily which you have been doing will reduce the level (ammonia above 0ppm will stress the axolotl).
Have you checked the Nitrate (approx 40) to ensure the tank as cycled? here is a link just in case.
http://www.axolotl.org/.
The situation may be simple like as Jennewt said the axolotl may be too full which happend to mine who coughed the food up untill I figured out its own balanced diet. You could use a feeding plan including how much it can eat per day and so on.

Good luck.

[Jennewt]

Do you have any aquariums that you have had up and running for several months or more? If so, I would recommend transferring some plants or ornaments or sand or filter media from the established tank into the axolotl tank. The ammonia reading indicates that the tank hasn't cycled yet, and 1 ppm is enough to cause the animal some stress. This may be the problem. Or it could still be full. But I would expect it to eat daily. It would be best to give it small feedings until it's fully healthy; the worm may have been too much at once.

[Fee]

Thanks everyone! That's a good idea about adding something from an established aquarium--when doing a rescue, there isn't time to properly cycle the tank into which you are putting the critter. Question, Jennewt--I have two established aquaria. One is a fishtank of my daughters', which contains African cichlids and leopard snails. The other is my Taricha Granulosa tank. Jemma the Rough-Skinned has been a companion for many years now. Which would be better? I know that differing toxicities can be a problem. I would appreciate any advice on this count.

Gilligan (that's the axie--my husband thought it was a cute name, because of his gorgeous, delicate gills!) may well be full. The weird thing is that he's snapping at it, and either unable or unwilling to haul it in. Could he just not like the worm in question? I'll try to get the tank cycled as quick as possible. Fingers crossed for Gilligan's future...

[Fee]

My ammonia reading today was 0!! Very pleased, I am. I added some plants from the Taricha tank, and I'm going to put a dish of thawed bloodworm in tonight and hope hope hope he eats them.