Axolotl refuses to eat nightcrawler

Hi,

I have had my axolotl for over 5 months. I fed him ( fresh ) nightcrawlers for the first 4 months.
But one month ago I he suddenly refuses to eat, while looking healthy. Afther 5 days without food i did a extra water refreash of about 60%. But without success. Afther 10 days without food ( he was still active / looking healthy altrough he became skinny ) i checked all the standard water values ( PH / NO2 / ... ) and everything seemed OK.

Now, 8 days ago i tried with a schrimp and, afther not eating nightcrawlers vor 2 weeks he ate the schrimp. At the moment he eats shrimp / fish / meat ... buuut he still refuses a nightcrawler.

Can someone explain to my what has happend to my axolotl, and why is he not eating nightcrawlers, who i thought was the perfect and complete staple food for him.


william

Sometimes axies can get sick of a certain type of food. Which is why he is eating the other food you are giving him, I wouldn't worry about it.

You may be able to feed him nightcrawlers later, but it sounds like he just wanted something new.

I like my wife's home made pizzas (she has absolutley spoiled it for more with take away pizza, hers just totally outclass the bought ones), but i reckon id get sick of them pretty quick if i had to eat them everyday

One of my axies gulps worms down asap, no matter how big or wriggly - they are toast.

The other, doesnt seem to like them wriggling too much, if they wriggle too much and get away from him once, he flat refuses to take them again, no matter what. I have to leave it for an hour or so before he'll try again. I have started leaving the worms for longer in some tank water so they are less wriggly for him, that seems to work.

So, like people, I guess they have likes and dislikes, and phases.

I'd just mix it up a bit try again later, maybe soak the worms in a jar of tank water for longer to take the wiggle out of them a bit.

Oh, also, the worms evacuate themselves when stressed (stressed like being drowned and eaten ), so they might just taste bad at first, soaking them for a while and rinsing them with your turkey baster befroe feeding helps that. I think some worms also give off a foul tasting slime when stressed as a defense mechanism, so soaking should fix that too

Bren

Hi, did you dig up the worms yourself? Do you wash the dirt and stuff off the worms?
Do you feed at night? (Sometimes they like it more)

Maybe try to feed red wigglers.
My axie looked like he was scared of worms (red wigglers). (The previous owner just fed him bloodworms and bloodworms and some more bloodworms...)

My axie just kept looking at it and the worms eventually disappeared in the sand.
A few weeks ago I tried feeding him in a separate tank (with no sand on the bottom and 1 or 2 worms in it, depending on the size) leaving him in there for a night and next day they were gone. Now he takes them out of my hand.

And my axies are sometimes just as cats... They won't eat the same food every day.

Hope it works.

My axie wouldn't even eat one bite of a nightcrawler! I cut one up into little pieces, he took a bite, and then he threw it up!