Help Please!!!

Hi, I have had our Axolotl for a few months. When I bought him home, he was lively and swimming fantastic. I have been feeding him live fish (feeder fish) and blackworms. He is in a tank with a slow filter and sand on the bottom. There is also one snail inside. PH. is 7- 7.2 and Water temp is Ok.
He is not eating anymore, he is weak and not responding, mostly floating on top of the water and I have seem him take a few gulps of air, when floating on top of the water. He also has a white 'film' (coating) on him body that is flaking. He is also very skinny.
I have not been able to get him the feeder fish for a couple of weeks, as the pet shop has not had any. I have been still giving him the blackworms but he is not interested. The blackworms also hide in the sand if he leaves them.
I do not know what to do! Please help!!

What is the temp specifically? And what kind of sand do you use (ordinary aquarium gravel or fine sand)? Where do you get the feeder fish, and do you know for sure that he eats them (how many)?

If he is skinny, then it would seem that he hasn't had enough to eat for some period of time. Perhaps the feeder fish have avoided easy capture and the blackworms have mostly hidden in the sand?

The standard treatment is probably your best bet: look at old threads for information on salt baths and refrigeration.

We will need some more information to have a clue what might be wrong. Has your tank been cycled before you introduced the Axolotl? And do you know the water parameters apart from pH, especially ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? How often do you do water changes?

Hi, I buy 10 feeder fish every week and they are usually ate within 24-48hrs. He eats them at night. He also gets a teaspoon of blackworms a night, I move the sand away, from where i put them and trun off the filter while he is eating but some still manage to hide in the sand. I believe the sand to be the same sand the use for hermit crabs. It is extremely fine.
I dont know the temp. But I have been putting ice in the tank for the last couple of days and he is moving a little more and I have seem him eat a few worms. Also, I have tested the ammonia and it is ok, but I have not tested the nitrate. I think I need a test kit for this.
Before I came to this web site, I did have the filter running fast because I thought he would like it but now it is very slow. I have also put a little bridge in there yesterday so he could hide but he does not seem interested.
He is about 11-13cm long (I do not know if that is classed as little or normal) and the tank holds about 20L of water.

Hello AimsPink,

Axolotls can shed skin for a number of reasons. If you would like more information, I suggest you take a look at this site:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/illness.shtml

Fungal infections can be mistakened for skin shedding. Fungal infections look like this:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=55008

It is important that you can distinguish between the two symptoms. Fungal infections are often secondary to a primary infection, for example, bacterial/parasitic infections.

I buy 10 feeder fish every week and they are usually ate within 24-48hrs.

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I take it that means you did not quarantine the feeder fish before you fed them to your axolotl. Quarantining a newly acquired aquatic animal is very important. The minimum time period for quarantining is 30 days; and is used as a precautionary method to determine whether the new aquatic animal is carrying any diseases that can be transmitted onto your axolotl.

Feeding fish to your axolotl as a staple diet is highly unorthodox because fish contain thiaminase, which can catalyse thiamine; thus, resulting in thiamine deficiencies. You should try and get your axolotl on earthworms and salmon/trout pellets. More information on a nutritional diet can be found in the following the links:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods2.shtml

I dont know the temp.

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You should really find out the temperature of the tank. Submergible thermometers can be bought for a cheap price at your local pet store. Or if you want to go one step up, you can purchase a digital thermometer. The choice is yours :happy:

Temperature plays an crucial factor in the health of an axolotl. Most people try to keep their tank temperature below 20 degrees celsius. Anything abover 24 degrees celsius is sure way to kill your axolotl, or at least bring about illnesses. Keep in mind that axolotls are "cold-blooded", therefore, they won't be able to regulate their internal temperature the way we (humans) do. So if you place an axolotl in a very warm environment, its internal temperature will be almost directly proportional to the environment, and the opposite is true for colder environments.

But I have been putting ice in the tank...

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Don't do this anymore because the ice cube method will result in dramatic temperature flucuations. Try freezing bottles of dechlorinated tap water and then placing them into the tank. Better yet, place your axolotl in the fridge. Information on fridging can be found in the link provided:

http://bigapple.uky.edu/~axolotl/pdf/28large.pdf

He is about 11-13cm long (I do not know if that is classed as little or normal) and the tank holds about 20L of water.

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The tank that you have now is far too small. Twenty litres is approximately two buckets, which is very little water. The less water you have in your tank, the greater the chances of facing complications with water quality. Also, a tank with a larger capacity for water has the ability to dilute the amounts of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Your axolotl will grow, and can grow up to 30 cm. Therefore, I'd advice you to find larger tank.

Best of luck with your axolotl.

Jay.

AimsPink said:

I have also put a little bridge in there yesterday so he could hide but he does not seem interested.
.

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He will require more hides than this, 2-3 really, also if it's only a small bridge it probably doesn't offer much in the way of a hide at all. Do you keep a light on the tank? if so he will definately need to be able to escape the glare.

In order to know exactly what is going on we need to know the water parameters, If you don't have test kits then most aquatic shops will test your water for you.

Whether his size is little or normal really depends on how old he is. Is he showing any other signs of stress, e.g gills curled forwards or tip of tail curled?

AimsPink said:

...and trun off the filter while he is eating.

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What kind of filter do you use and how long do you turn it off? I do not advise to turn off the filter at any time since the bacteria in the filter will need a constant supply of oxygen or else they will die, adding to the bioload in your tank and slowing down the cycling process.

I agree with Jay - you should get a thermometer as soon as possible, you should not use ice cubes for cooling (not only for the reason of fluctuating temperature, but they could also be contaminated with some bacteria from your fridge) and you should get a bigger tank in the near future.

Ok, I now have a 2 foot tank and his skin is fine now. He still is not eating a great deal but he does like the black worm but he spits them out as well.
I noticed on one side of his head the smallest gill, has no "feathers" on it. (sorry I do not know the proper name)

I have also got some "val" weed for him and a few big things for him to hide in. I dont know if I should put stones in the tank instead of the sand. As the sand does not "clean" well at all. But I do not want him to choke!?

I'm sorry can't help you on the other points you raised, but I just wanted to say that sand is the best substrate to use (other than a bare bottomed tank) as it is much easier to clean. What are you using to clean the sand? I use a turkey baster to remove the debris and this works just fine. If you have a problem with the blackworms burrowing into the sand is it possible for you to change the diet to earthworms? I find these are readily taken by my two axolotls and there's no waste (I feed them by hand) If not, I would recommend you stick to a bare bottomed tank so that any escapees can be found! As you pointed out yourself, stones or gravel are not a good idea because your axolotl may swallow them, it is also harder to clean with stones or gravel in your tank.
Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong in any points I've made, I'm fairly new in offering advice and hope I've got the facts right! Thanks, Kerry.

I use a fish tank siphon to clean the tank, it does not suck up rocks but everything under them but the sand goes straight through, so I have to keep replacing it.
(I don't know how to add pictures to this...)

AimsPink said:

I use a fish tank siphon to clean the tank, it does not suck up rocks but everything under them but the sand goes straight through, so I have to keep replacing it.

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Hi Aimee,

You don't actually have to touch the sand with the siphon. If you hold the bell just above the sand and wave it gently back and forth a little, the debris will rise from the sand and go into the siphon. Should the siphon become full of sand, you can just stop the water flow (I put my thumb over the endof the tube, but you can also just kink the tube) for a moment, the sand will fall back out again (I have to do this for snails, too, because I usually wind up sucking one of them into the siphon).

-Eva

I will try that, Thank you!

She died! Lost her last night! :sad::sad::sad::sad: