Cause of Death?

K

kate

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my local water authority just replied to an email i sent them asking if there were any recent anomalies in my water supply:

"Kate,
During January and February the Caboolture Water Treatment Plant was shut down due to the low level of water in the Caboolture Weir. During this time Caboolture was supplied with water from North Pine Dam. Due to rain in March the Caboolture plant was restarted and is currently supplying water to the Caboolture area. Weekly monitoring of water quality has shown that all water supplied meets the Australian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines. It is likely however that residents of the Caboolture area will have noticed a change in taste and possibly chlorine levels as the supply was changed over. Please contact me if you have further queries.

regards,"

I got Sigourney in January, she became ill and died in March. What does this mean?
sad.gif
 
ok so ive had some suggestions.
there could have been a high level of agricultural runoff in the water - it was really dry, they built up, then they were all washed in.
someone also told me that when a pipeline has been empty the sometimes clean it out with water with extra chemicals.
also i was told that the weekly monotoring obviously doens't pick up any problems for a week.
 
ok, went to LFS today. man there suggetsed cod could the sudden pH change - north pine dam is 6.4 and caboolture weir is 8.
 
anyone? was it the pH change or the 10ppm of nitrate that comes out of my tap or the process of switching water sources and pipelines or did she eat some of her broken thermometer or ? i cant work out what i did wrong.
 
Any opinion on this is hearsay. Having said that, yes, the pH _might_ have been a problem but axolotls are usually very tolerant of this. I would be interested to know what temperature it was in your house at that time, considering it was the tail-end of summer time for you, could the axolotl have succumbed to heat stress? Even without the combination with a major water chemistry change such as pH, this is a frequent killer.
 
thank you for replying. i kept the airconditioning on, the water never went above 24 degrees celcius. how should people keep their axies cool in australia? is it just not a good idea to have them here?
 
For an adult axolotl, 24 degrees C for more than a week at a time or so will give heat stress. Larvae have a higher tolerance.
 
Those are my words and I stand by them, but 24 is the edge and I wouldn't like to test that for too long.

What kind of water flow was in the tank? Were the axolotl's gills pointing forward at all, and did it's tail develop a fault at its apex?
 
I'm in Brisbane as well and my temperatures are around 20-23C at the moment as well. I got my lotls from a local breeder about 5 weeks ago. He said he doesn't use any cooling and has no problems with water temperature but I'm concerned about what to do for Summer after reading here & axolotl.org . Was yours from a petshop? Almost all the one's I've seen in petshops on my side of town (southside) are skinny and are kept in less than ideal conditions.
 
John said:
What kind of water flow was in the tank? Were the axolotl's gills pointing forward at all, and did it's tail develop a fault at its apex?
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no i cut the flow right down, it was very gentle. her gills never pointed foward. her tail-fin did bend at the top to one side a tiny bit right at the tip after she had become ill. she also lost gill fillaments.
 
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peterj said:
Was yours from a petshop? Almost all the one's I've seen in petshops on my side of town (southside) are skinny and are kept in less than ideal conditions.
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yes, my local petstock. her tank wasnt really suitable, it had gravel with food on it and 2 other larger axis in there. i dont know how much filtration they were using but physical space wise it looked too small.

peterj said:
I'm in Brisbane as well and my temperatures are around 20-23C at the moment as well. I got my lotls from a local breeder about 5 weeks ago. He said he doesn't use any cooling and has no problems with water temperature but I'm concerned about what to do for Summer after reading here & axolotl.org.
Click to expand...
i dont know, i tried finding solutions myself. i chose to run airconditioning. other options i considered were to buy a chiller but i couldnt afford one but i did find some diy plans for them that would be cheaper i hope or to run fans aimed at the water surface.
 
Losing gill pieces is usually a stress sign. You say no flow and no heat but something was definitely stressing that axolotl.
 
There's no way to know for certain. Perhaps it was water chemistry. Who knows. Without documentary evidence of all of the conditions it's about as certain as who killed Julius Caesar.
 
ok, thank you for trying to help me. her water was always good except that my tap water contains nitrates and then there were many changes when the council switched supplies.
 
Caboolture axies

Hi Kate,

I live in Caboolture also and have 4 axies and have been having trouble with the water also. I have been getting ammonia spikes, quite big ones, but i am going to use plants to hopefully calm that down. I think the crazy fluctuations with the weather we have been getting might attribute to your axie dying:cry:. Also I have noticed that alot of the local store around here are not haveing adequate facilities for them to house them. They basically don't care and treat them like any old fish, so maybe you got a juvenile that wasn't healthy to begin with.

To cool your tank they is a cheaper option than buying a cooler, but is time consuming. I bought a cheap esky from bunnings and some clear tubing and a $5 pump from the markets. I connected the tubing to the pump, fed it to the esky, in which there was about 8 metres of tubing coiled up in, fed it out of the esky, ( you will need to drill holes), and back to the tank. I fill the esky up with ice, usually lasts for 2 days, depending on how hot it gets. Turn on the filter and the water running through the piping get cooled and thus eventually cools your tank. Ice bricks are also good.
But is time consuming as i constantly changing over ice bricks, but if you don't let your tank warm up it is easier to keep cool, (3 times a day is good, but need freezer space and quite a few bricks)
Hopefully this has helped you:eek:
 
thanks talula! that is really helpful. i havent got myself another axie though.
since i found out the council is randomly switching water supplies i have been testing the ph of the tap water every time i do a change because it is a very large difference.
Talula said:
I think the crazy fluctuations with the weather we have been getting might attribute to your axie dying:cry:.
Click to expand...
do you mean the temperature changes or the effect on the water supply?
thanks again.
 
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