Illness/Sickness: Not eating - does she look sick??

I have recently transferred my 2 axies to the one tank...much bigger and easy to feed and clean in the 1 tank.

Before i changeed them to the one tank they both stopped eating for 1 week. They have now been in the new tank for 1,5 weeks and 1 axie is eating everything i feed him, however my older one has completely stopped eating. I have tried beef heart, blood worms, pellets and live garden worms...she just turns away and completely ignores the food.

the tank temp averages between 17-20degrees and the PH/Amonia levels are fine.

Does she look sick? Please see pics attached. (She has always had those little white spots on her head and partially on her body - and some of the glare/white flashy spots are acctually water on the tank - but as i said these have always been ther)

Any help will be greatly appreciated...really worried about my baby

Hiya
Lovely looking axolotl!
She does look a bit stressed with her gills forward like that.
Have you checked ammonia nitrite and nitrates? Are they all ok?
Temp could be a little high at 20.
Do you have lighting in the tank? Are there plenty of places to hide?

Also - those stones look like they could be a hazard. You axolotl could have eaten some. It may be worthwhile fridging her to see if she passes any of the stones. And remove all the stones from the tank.

Mel

Thanks for the advice.

Ammonia and Nitrate are at the perfect levels - 0 - according to my testing kit. I regularly test the water for these also.

In the original tank i had her in the temp was generally around there and i never had anyh problems...it generally is around 17 degrees though...

I dont have any light in the tank, the previous tank had a fluroscent light and she always hid when that was on, where the tank is in my house there is plenty of natural light during the day ande at nhight i generally cover the tank so they arent startled by light changes etc.

There is a log type thing and a skull, plenty of dark hidden corners and several plants in there for them.

I have also always had that gravel in there, ever since i had her from a baby, she has eaten some before but spits it back out as soon as she realises its not food.

Can you please give me some tips on limiting stress...i am reluctant to fridge her as my friends axie recently died from fridging...any where you can suggesst i can refer to for correct fridging techniques. i think stress would be due to light changes within the room as well as handling/tank change.

I have another axie in there whho is doing just fine...so worried

She may have eaten the gravel by accident. It can kill her so it would be best to remove it and replace with sand or a bare bottomed tank.

Fridging isn't harmful to Axolotls check out this link

Axolotl Sanctuary

Everything else sounds fine.

I'm not an expert tho and i'm sure Rayson will be on later.

Mel

What sand do you suggesst??? I read somewhere that a particular type of sand can make the tank really dirty...

Children's play sand or pool filter sand will work. As long as you rinse the sand really well before adding it to the tank it shouldn't cloud up the water for no more than a day.

Also, what type of test kit are you using, strips or test tubes?

thanks, im actually thinking of using slate tiles for the bottom and loading it up with plants and some hides. I am using test tubes for testing ph and amonia levels.

I use childrens play sand in mine.

Good idea the slate tiles do look good and would be easy to keep clean too. :happy:

Mel

thanks again for the advice....i covered the tank last night so the tank was completely dark and no light sudden movement etc got to them through to the cover. I checked her this morning and her gills are slowly going back up - will keep the cover on a while longer and see how she goes...i have left some garden worms in there over night as well as some pellts - pellets werent touched, but i cant see any garden worms, so hopefully she has eaten something...

I will change my tank around hopefully this weekend, and post some pics up of it

will keep you updated on how my axie progresses

Just to add a note here, if your nitrates are at zero it's likely you have an uncycled tank. how often and how much water do you change? If I've missed it in your previous posts I apologise.

Good luck. If you find she is still not eating once everything is posted i would definately fridge for a few days. Fridging will aid in passing any gravel that may be stuck inside her. Mel

I meant once everything is sorted. Not posted! Predictive text on my phone! And then i couldn't find the edit button. Apologies for any confusion! Mel

No confusion caused. I am going to change the tank around over the weekend, so over the next two days. She still hasnt eaten either so i might fridge her also

Yeah i would say fridge her. It should help pass anything that may be inside her. Mel

I am sorry to let you all know, but Axle died this afternoon.

Was very traumatic and upsetting. Hopefully he is in a better place now.

RIP axle.

i know very saddened

Awww thats awful I'm soooo sorry to hear that!
Mel