hot days have taken their toll

Sadly, the 44.5 Celcius day in Perth around Xmas has taken its toll on my female albino Chimera. She passed away this morning, after fridging, cleaning tank, keeping my tank as cool as pssible. The temp in the tank spiked to 25 on that scorching day. Ancalagon didn't seem affected, he's fine. Chimera stopped eating, began floating and looking very unhappy. I did everything I read about on this site, but didn't work.

Cheers
Sharon

sorry for your loss

Sorry to hear that Sharon. It just may have been a little late.

Your other one may appear fine, but keep an eye on him - especially as you cleaned out your tank and if it was a full clean it will need to be monitored (testing the tankwater parameters) as it may be cycling.

Usually the weaker axolotl (one with the lowest immune system) will show symptoms long before the stronger ones.

What Kapo said should be taken very seriously. Think of the first one as a warning of impending problems in the other one and take steps to try and fix things. The problem with axolotls is that once they get sick it's very hard to get them well again, so once your girl started going downhill for a few days it was probably too late to do anything about it. You have a chance to avoid it now with the other one so take steps immediately (fridge him for a month if you have to).

Hi Sharon, I'm sorry, mine is in the fridge at the moment and not coming out until saturday (been there since boxing day).

Thanks guys, the fridge has been my option for Ancalagon now, as the heat wave seems to be continuing.

Sharon

Leaving Axies in Fridge!

sdhuz36 said:

Thanks guys, the fridge has been my option for Ancalagon now, as the heat wave seems to be continuing.

Sharon

Click to expand...

So, if you think that your axi is getting a bit sick, you put him/her in the fridge?
How come?

Thanks Steve

The fridge option is usually best for a sick/ailing axolotl especially during summer temperatures where you can't get the tank down below 22C and maintain it.

Axolotls are cold water creatures - they do not adapt/acclimitise to warm temperatures despite what some people might think .

Anything below 20C is usually ideal - down to as low as 5C.

Hence when an axolotl is sick, placing it in the fridge slows its metabolism down to give it a chance to heal.

Keeping an axie in warm/summer temps 22+ when it's sick just makes things worse - an axies immune system basically can become lowered/compromised and therefore they (or usually the weakest axie of the bunch) will start showing symptoms of odd floating, deteriorating gills/limbs, odd out of the normal behaviour, skinnieness and/or fungal infections. This can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks to develop depending on water conditions, companions they're kept with (or if unquarantined companions have been added to tank) or heat. Predominantly, especially in Aussie at the moment the majority of stress or illnesses have been related to extreme temperatures.

Many axolotl owners (a few in Australia, parts of Europe/UK and USA) place their axolotls in the fridge for the summer months until it cools down enough for them to come out again (below 18C).

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Am...exicanum.shtml

has notes about temperature. Which I follow and never have had a problem with.

My axie very happy with the fridge option; he's in for the second spell in about 5 weeks, been there for 5 days now.

Yes Casaloxi you have never had a problem with it which is great.

Most sicknesses are due to poor/uninformed advice on the part of the petshop to the new owner which in combination with extreme continued heat and whatever else they've been advised to keep with the axolotl causes a stress related illness.

The point is he was asking why they get put in the fridge when they're sick.

Have you checked out the following page for ideal temperatures, the link you've posted isn't working: http://www.axolotl.org/requirements.htm#heat

in particular "If you've been reading the pages in sequence, you will have read on the Housing Page that the optimum temperature for axolotls is between about 16 °C and 18 °C (60-64 °F)."

and: "Temperatures above 24 °C (75 °F) are very stressful to axolotls. Such temperatures cause metabolism to increase (the rate at which the body "works"), and consequently, an increase in appetite. However, the stress resulting from more than a day or two of exposure to these temperatures will quickly lead to disease and death. You can read more about axolotl diseases and their treatment on the Health Page.

The first symptoms of heat stress in axolotls include refusal of food and/or the development of pale patches of mucus-like material on the skin (see the photo below)."