My Axie isn't pooping?

lucyz83

lucyz83

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He hasn't pooped in about 2 weeks now so i'm a bit worried, he's about a year old now 7-8" long has a sand substrate and eats a live earthworm each day, though sometimes i'll give him bloodworms. Today he also spat out his worm so I'm worried he's not so well, as he normally always wants food. I'm not sure what to do. Should i look into maybe fridging him if this continues and see if he passes anything?

Any help is appreciated, thanks.
 
Two weeks is a long time. It may be a build up of food and it may be worth fridging him and seeing if something passes. There is a fridging guide on this forum at the top of the sick axolotl folder
 
Thanks very much, i'll read up on it properly first and then fridge him & hopefully he'll pass something. I'm also thinking maybe while he's being fridged to change the substrate to a single piece of slate rock base, as I've heard that sand can still sometimes cause him to be impacted?
 
What sand is he on? I had a bad experience with aquarium sand and had to remove it after one of my axies had swallowed some. I switched to Richgro play sand and it has been a lot better. Do you hand feed off the sand or eating on the sand? Even with good sand and hand feeding some do still ingest sand and It may be worth removing the sand.
 
I think it's aquarium sand as it has larger grains (should be an attached photo, note that it's old and he was about 4 inches when i took it) I hand feed him from above so he looks up for food.
 

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Cute axie :)

Personally after the experience I had, I would recommend changing it to a finer sand or switch out the sand to bare bottom or slate tile. The Richgro play sand I use now is so much finer. The downside was that I had to do a lot of sieving to remove bits of gravel in it. But it was worth it in the end. Really happy with the result. Hopefully he will pass something soon and you will have a better idea of whether the sand was causing an issue. It may just be a build up of food. Keep us posted :)
 
Thank so much for your help, i'm thinking of switching to the slate bottom if that's the case, don't want the current substrate causing problems in future. I'll be preparing the fridge tomorrow and put him in the next day if the temperature is all good by then and hopefully in a few day's he'll pass something, I'll definately post his progress.
Thanks again :)
 
Just put him in the fridge, My second water container is at steady 6 degrees so his water should go down to that soon and i have a very accurate thermometer to keep an eye on the temp. Fingers crossed he'll pass something and get better soon.
 
Been checking the temperature and it's going down slowly and steadily, at about 11 degrees last time i checked, so no problems so far :) And I've also gotten rid of the aquarium sand and put in two slate tiles that my dad cut, so they are easy to lift up and get any gunk out from underneath them. (There should be an attached photo of my current 2ft tank)
 

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I've attached photos of what he's expelled over the night in his old fridge tub, i did the 100% water change this morning. I'm pretty sure it's vomit as it appears to be mainly bloodworms (and some bits of the old aquarium sand), which was the last thing i got him to eat and keep down as he was refusing worms previously. what do you think?

(also note i enhanced to photos so you can see more clearly, so the colours are far less brown when you see it for real)
 

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Hard to tell whether it is vomit or poo. My initial thought was that it is poo just walked through but not 100% sure from photos. Maybe keep in the fridge for a little while longer and see if anything else passes?
 
I'll be keeping him in there for a few more days anyway as i need to aclimatise him to the water in his newly changed tank anyway (the filters the same as before so it shouldn't take that long) so I'll continue to wait & see if anything else passes. I'll continue to update as things happen, thanks again c:
 
Good news! I'm quite certain he pooped overnight (attached photo) and there was a fair amount of sand there, the poor little thing. I'll continue to keep him in the fridge for the next couple of days and see if he continues to pass anything, and then i'll reintroduce him to his tank without all that sand so hopefully this won't happen again.
 

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That is excellent news! Thank you for keeping us posted :)
 
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