Squishy is "scratching"?

Hello All! I haven't been on lately as Squishy has been doing quite well. But I have yet again run into an issue.

I went to buy earthworms (I have fed her nightcrawlers since I got her and she always munches away on them) the other day only to find every store around me is sold out! So the lady at Petsmart talked me into buying frozen bloodworm cubes. I remembered people on here talking about feeding their axies bloodworms.

I was a little put off by how fast they disintegrated in the water! I have been keeping them frozen and then hand feeding them to her and then scooping through the tank with a net to try and get all the little pieces. Unfortunately I never seem to be able to get all the leftover bits.

It says on the package to feed often and monitor what your animal can eat in 3 minutes. So today I fed her three frozen cubes. She was munching and crunching and eating away and then she started to freak out! She started scratching at her gills with her back legs? Almost like a dog scratches behind their ears. I wasn't sure what to do so I let it go and now she seems ok.

I constantly panic she is going to die and I just want to make sure she is ok and perhaps this is something normal or maybe not related to the bloodworms at all? Any advice is much appreciated!

are you thawing the boodworm cube or feeding frozen?

I had a similar problem with my albino, she kept kicking at her gills with her hind leg, just as you describe like a cat or dog. I too was very worried and arrived at the conclusion she had some kind of parasite after a couple salt baths and a few days in the fridge she was fine, I took her to a vet and he swabbed her gills and found no problem. try to have a look at the gills to see if there is anything on them but, if this problem persists I would recommend you visit a vet as if it is a parasite it will have to be treated

this might sound silly but if it happened while or just after she was eating did she get one caught in her gills? When Juan eats bloodworm she makes a terrible mess by sucking in a huge mouthful then spitting them out her gills. When i first got her and her branches were tiny she would sometimes get a bloodworm caught and would scratch and flap to dislodge it


edited to add Juan loves her bloodworm - i have a small candle holder i feed them to her in and when she feels she NEEDS to have some bloodworm she will sit with her head in the candle holder and look at me

I was feeding them still frozen, is that wrong? They seemed to defrost so quickly in the water. She did the scratchy thing right after sucking in an entire gob of worm so perhaps she did have on stuck in her gills cause she only did a couple times during the feeding and not since.

I will definitely keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't become an issue.

Also (this is horrible for me to say) I just tested my water for the first time since having Squish (2 years) and I came up with readings of:

Nitrate= 40
Nitrite= 0
Water Hardness= Soft
Total Alkalinity= 80, moderate
pH= 6.8-7.2

I think this is ok, I just tested in with the little water test strip bought from a Walmart, I think the Nitrate is too high but am not sure how to bring it down. Ideas? Comments?

I know it is horrible I have never tested the water before but it always seemed fine and I had an Ammonia indicator in the tank and it always read safe.

Please let me know what I should do if I need to bring down anything or up anything in the tank.

The simplest way to bring down those Nitrate levels is by regular water changes with treated (ie. for chlorine/chloramine/trace metals) water. I personally use Tetra Aquasafe, although there are other brands....

Rather than using the test strips, I advise you to invest in a 'test-tube' type kit that will test for pH, Ammonia,Nitrites,and Nitrates (I use the API freshwater master kit, there are other brands available, etc). This is more accurate than the test strips, and although initially costly (£25-ish) it will last for a good while. Please post the results. (By the way, what Ammonia tester did you say you have?)

A bloodworm may well have got caught in it's gills.......have you tried feeding the bloodworm in a submerged jar or pint glass to be able to contain them a bit?

If it persists I would do as Tom recommended and get a vet's opinion, just to make sure.

Hope this helps :happy:

Feel free to ask questions and browse the forum, there's loads of good information

I will look into getting a test tube water testing kit. I am a college student so funds are not exactly at my disposal but I will try to get one when I can.

I try to do water changes pretty regularly and I always add a dechlorinator.

I have never fed bloodworms before so I am still a little lost on how to do it, should I put them in a little jar and put it in the tank? I think I have little cups she can fit her head in, but then the problem arises that if its not moving she won't eat it. Any ideas on that?

I will definitely keep an eye on her to see if she continues this strange scratching behavior

feeding them in a jar or pot on its side is by far the least messiest way of feeding them bloodworms. They soon get the hang of going into the pot for them. Juan eats them all in the pot then hoovers around for the ones she spat out her gills

Here is what I do and its works great.

Get a net and then put the frozen blood worm cubes into teh net and then run it under a tap. It will defrost the bloodworm and rinse all the dirt off of them. Then just put the bloodworms in the tank.

daniellog said:

Here is what I do and its works great.

Get a net and then put the frozen blood worm cubes into teh net and then run it under a tap. It will defrost the bloodworm and rinse all the dirt off of them. Then just put the bloodworms in the tank.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I do +1

Thanks for your replies everybody! Thankfully the pet shop got night crawlers back in stock so the bloodworm fiasco is over. I recently moved the tank into a friends house so Squish will have a more stable environment and won't have to move ever again (I am a college student and my life is more than a little unpredictable) She moved great and is being set up in a cool dark basement room with lots of wormies fresh from the ground.

I have been watching her and I haven't noticed her doing the scratchy thing anymore, so it must have been a worm that got stuck. Thanks so much for all your help!

Hey good bout the worms some proper axie munch! Just a thought, sometimes tiny little worms can grow in your on the glass in ur tank if theres excess food i think the little white/clear ones are called planaria or something like that (you can hardly see them), as far as I know they are pretty much harmless (could be wrong) and are a regular occurrence, but they do give axies itchy gills if they come in contact like brushing against the glass, ive heard of axies doing the same itchy thing because of it so might be the cause especially if there have been a few bloodworm hiding about the place(excess food and all that), I think daz had that issue ages ago (check freds diary) and its sorted by feeding the tank less but if you're back to worms you'll have it under control!

twas just a thought, I may be way out!