Regurgitated food

So my male lotl, subadult, was moved to a new tank on Monday. 40g (wonderful dollar per gallon petco sale). I put in my 10g media as well as the water from the 10g to help establish the tank. Tuesday I bought a new large ornament, a 35w LED and two live plants. I rinsed the ornament and sat the two plants in dechlorinated water for a day and then bleach dipped them and then rinsed with dechlorinated water and added them Wednesday. Thursday was when I put in a new stronger filter, up to 40g sponge filter + up to 40g airpump along with the 10g spongefilter I already have.

Other basics: 8 inches. Prior to worms he ate bloodworms. On sand substrate. No other tank mates. There is no visible current in the tank although his gills did wobble a bit.

I'm not entirely sure the last time he fully ate, maybe Monday or Tuesday, but Thursday and Friday I spent the entirety pushing food on him. He would either ignore the worm, act interested and then fail to follow up, eat and fail spectacularly to keep it down and give up or refuse to eat entirely. It should be noted that he's very new to worms, as of... this week, really.

Yesterday(Friday, 30th) I pushed food on him all day long. I have been cutting the worms in halves and even fourths sometimes to make it easier on him to slurp down and he got about 1 1/2 worm down. I was thrilled. After two days or somewhere around there he ate! I come back later to the tank and the worms were regurgitated.

I asked a friend and they said there were several possibilities. Stress, compaction, constipation, or some sort of snails from the plants. Any other possibilities?

The plants I bought were from petsmart and were allegedly snail-free. I'm no expert on spotting them but I don't see anything, just yet at least.

Bottom line is, super stressed about my child. He's now in the fridge and I'll at least wait and see if anything comes out of him that's strange.

First, don't get stressed. It isn't an emergency yet. He's pretty big so can go a while without food.

Second, axolotls can get picky over food even when nothing has changed. He's in a brand-new tank and you are trying to feed him new food, which is likely to bring out the pickiness in him.

Third - what kind of worms? If they are red wigglers (Eisenia fetida), they smell (and apparently taste) very bad (hence "fetid" in the Latin name). Most axololts dislike them and some vomit them after they eat them.

Fourth - where did you get your worms?

This is causing you a lot of stress, so how about trying some blood worms so you can reassure yourself that he is getting some nutrition. Yes, you need to get a more nutritionally-complete food for him, but if we know he is eating, then it is much more likely that he is not sick, just being picky.

I'm feeding him earthworms that were purchased on Thursday from a local bait shop.

Should I thaw a bloodworm cube etc and throw it in his fridge tupperware?

Auuuugh.

I missed that he was already fridged. Usually, they won't eat much in there. You could offer him food, but you will need to do a total water changes shortly thereafter to get rid of the uneaten food.

Have you read the frigding guide? http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...ick-axolotl/85263-axolotl-fridging-guide.html Many refrigerators are set too cold - you want it above 40F.

Yes I've read the guide. The fridge is at about 46.

Should he be taken out of the fridge? I don't think he's compacted at all but would constipation make him throw it up?

I don't think constipation would make him throw up, but I'm definitely not an expert on axolotl constipation. :happy:

I think he would be better off out of the fridge, assuming he isn't constipated.

Do the worms stink when you handle them? If so, those are red wigglers and the possible cause of him vomiting.

There is a school of thought on axolotl keeping that says you have to be persistent to get them accustomed to new food, and not give into their pickiness. That is probably a good approach in general.

My qualms about using that approach strictly in this case come from a similar occurrence I had where the perceived pickiness was actually a sign of illness (and resulted in some big vet bills). It even started out similarly - I fed them red wigglers for the first time. First 2 days, they ate them, then they started rejecting them and vomiting them up if they did swallow a bit. They also rejected their regular food. So it is probably a good idea to make sure he will eat his old food and isn't actually ill. (The vet thought the protozoan infection could have been caught from the worms, but if so, that is thought to be a rare occurrence among axolotls.)

Actually, now that I think about it, I did have red wigglers. I think. On the box it said trout worms and by googling red wigglers that's a second name for them. I don't recall a bad odor but I can't remember anything these days. I ran out of those worms because I was persistent. He ate those at least once. The ones that he recently ate were normal worms, I believe -- they don't smell.

Does he just have a bad stomach ache or are there extra precautions if they're wigglers? I'll put him back in the tank and wait awhile and then push bloodworms on him.

Just kidding, the second batch of worms are apparently wigglers as well. Don't smell, but my mom says they're the same type because she bought them.

There are thing you can do to make them less-obnoxious to axolotls (like a quick dunk in very hot water), but don't like to mess with that. Canadian Nightcrawlers are really big, but don't stink that way.

I've heard some axolotls never tolerate them. Or maybe they are just better than most at training their owners to bring them food they like.:happy:

He ate them in the beginning, had to cut them up, but he ate them. Hopefully not traumatized from the bad experience now. Do nightcrawlers not wiggle as much? I noticed that the worms that I fed him which we're just going to assume now that are redworms shrunk and expanded their little wormy bodies A LOT. It made eating it a lot harder than it needed to be.

I'm going to try my hardest to make him eat worms. Bloodworms are sooooo dirty.

But back to my question -- should I take any precautions or just let him settle his tummy?