Help me please!

H

hayley

Guest
i have two pink albino axolotls, they are about 9 inches long, speculating that they are the same sex. They have not eaten at all in two weeks. they are showing no outward signs of infection, there water tests have come out normal and their behaviour is as it always it ... they just wont eat! does anyone know what might be wrong?
 
they have always been fed on cockle and frozen blood worm, the temp has never deviated from 22 degrees
 
i have just been down to try and tempt them again and both of them just turned there heads away from the food, also though they are both losing weight i saw that tas (i think the younger one) has swelled slightly in the lower part of his tummy , rather than being quite plump and round it looks like his tummy has kind of sunk ... does that make sence?
 
they are on very fine gravel, one of them has ingested it in the last 3 months and it just passed straight through so irs not a problem. i have tried them on so many other foods but cockle and bloodworm is all they will eat ... they are mighty picky!
 
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I think if they got some thing new to them they might eat it. Have they every had some thing live or brine shrimp?
 
yes ... it was quite funny ... they ran away from it! im happy to try it again though, i'll go to the pet store tomorrow
 
actually now i think about it there could be something else ... we have quite alot of little worm like things in the tank ... they are not parasites and they are free swimmers. i have taken them to be analysed at my local store and was told that they are just naturally occuring things that appear in the water when a tank is maturing ... now i was told that they cannot halm the axolotls but could they be affecting the water?
 
I had that also in my tank did not mess up my water. I was told that they were there because I did not clean up the food fast enough. Alot of people have them. I would still take some water in and have it tested to be safe. Some thing else you can try to feed them if beef heart. I found some over here that was frozen. That stuff make a big mess I could not find fresh. Just another thought. Hope they eat soon!!!
 
Is the tank temperature 22 on purpose, or is that just your house temp? I would recommend lowering it, if at all possible. Although 22 is within the tolerance for axies, it's healthier for them to be colder than that in winter. Also, if they are losing weight, they will lose weight more slowly at colder temps.

Even if the gravel is able to pass through them, it could still plug up their digestive tract if they ate enough of it. Depending on the size of it, which I can't tell very well from your pics. But if that were the problem, I wouldn't expect it to hit both of them at the same time.

Were they eating fine up until 2 weeks ago?
 
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    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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  • Thorninmyside:
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  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
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