Illness/Sickness: Silly Axies NOT Eating!!!

I've had my axies for a few months and I started out feeding them daily on earthworms, then I went to every 2nd day sue to lack of appetite and they were fine with that for ages. Then I went to feeding 3 times a week (as was suggested to me). But 2 of my axies are still being stubborn! My female Lottie is a good girl and eats whenever I feed her, but my 2 boys... gah! It's SO frustrating! I go to all the effort of getting the worms, soaking them, then wiggling it for them.. and they still don't eat it.. They will chomp on it once or twice.. but not eat it!!

I thought that MAYBE they just aren't very hungry axies.. they do eat occasionally (at the LEAST once every 2 weeks), but I'm sure that's not enough.. Some time about 8 days ago I put in 7 mollies. 4 got munched. Am I to assume that 2 little fishies can keep them each going for over a week??

Please help, they are frustrating me to no end! Silly little naughty axie boys!

PS. ammonia is zero, I have live plants, tank is cycled etc, etc.

To begin with a quick checklist:

- NO2 / NO3 levels should be arround 0 with your plants
- Your GH (Hardness of the water) should not be to soft, cold water newts can actually handle somewhat harder water arround 16oD
- Then your KH should not exceed 6oD
- And PH should be between 6.8 and 7.2

Axies make a lot of ammonia, real plants do help.. but then still you need to change 1/3 of your water every week with normal tap water to assure a healthy environent.

If this is all okay, you could try feeding them something smaller or something different for a change, maybe their just tired of the worms, and when they saw the molly's it was a welcome new menu

It's true axies can stay without food pretty long, but I would stick with the advice given to you earlier and feed them every 3rd day.

Their are lots of food choices for them so this may help fix their appetite

If nothing else works, keep an eye on their figure, if they become really slimsized their are some posts on this forum on how to force feed an axie after for example an illness.

Final option, but I don't know if they have that in your tank, is that he has a very heavy stomach maybe a stone swallow...

We share thesame dream bytheway, owning a pet store, that's wicked

Cheers

Are these adult axolotl ? Also what temperature is their water?.
If their water is cool ( as in temp) then they will feed less often, also adults do not tend to feed as often as the younger ones.

I change about 20 Litres every week out of a 130 Litre tank.

Temp is 17 degrees celsius at the moment (usually around 18).
Yes they are adults.
No idea what KH is but..

Ph: 7.6 (well that is the highest the normal test kit goes, and nothing registers on the high range test)
Ammonia: 0 (as always)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0.

How do I test water hardness? I use rain tank water for most changes, but every now and then I use dechlorinated tap water (as I've heard it has essential minerals etc.)

What else do you suggest for the menu? Last time my melanoid didn't eat I offered it beef heart a few times (and he LOVED it), but on here I was told to simply withhold food until he accepts worms again..

So my ph looks a little high, how do I lower it? Just change more water?

And yeah I definitely will have my own pet store! I'm doing animal studies next year at tafe so that should help!

Thanks everyone for the advice!

So today after almost 2 WEEKS of only offering Pitch earthworms, I gave in and offered him a beef heart cube.. I swear he is just a stubborn little child waiting for his chocolate! As SOON as I offered it, he ate it no question! Grr cheeky little toddler!

My other male Red gave in and ate his worm. He usually loves them, he just gets frustrated when they wiggle too much. (Red: "Mummy why is my food trying to get away..? You know what? I don't want it hmmf!") He's such a cutie.

But really, what in earth am I going to do with my stubborn little melanoid Pitch?? He is so cheeky!!

You can get a GH / KH test from reef & river or the interweb.

You might find your water is very soft, but i dont think it's causing your guys not to eat, they are probably just being a PITA.

One of mine went funny on food a while ago, ended up he was only taking one worm a week for a while, he still gre the same as his brother, and he didnt lose any weight, so i just shrugged my shoulders and kept going. Now he eats exactl y the same as the other - go figure

Re water hardness - if you use only rain water and rely on Geelong water for mierals, your water will be very very soft, and axies like it a little harder. geelong water is very soft on it's own, and rain water has little to none of the minerals the water needs.

I use aqaurium salts in each water change and i only ever use tap water for changes.

It's something to fix up, but if your axies are otherwise healthy, the water hardness is not something to panic about

Bren

blackdog said:

You can get a GH / KH test from reef & river or the interweb.

You might find your water is very soft, but i dont think it's causing your guys not to eat, they are probably just being a PITA.

One of mine went funny on food a while ago, ended up he was only taking one worm a week for a while, he still gre the same as his brother, and he didnt lose any weight, so i just shrugged my shoulders and kept going. Now he eats exactl y the same as the other - go figure

Re water hardness - if you use only rain water and rely on Geelong water for mierals, your water will be very very soft, and axies like it a little harder. geelong water is very soft on it's own, and rain water has little to none of the minerals the water needs.

I use aqaurium salts in each water change and i only ever use tap water for changes.

It's something to fix up, but if your axies are otherwise healthy, the water hardness is not something to panic about

Bren

Click to expand...

Gah! I JUST got back from reef and river (with my new sucker fish for my NON-axie tank ) and THEN read this post haha bad timing.

Should be going back in a few days for the bf's plants so I'll grab one then. Are they expensive? And what sort of aquarium salts? Just the standard non-iodised stuff?

Thanks so much Bren!

Oh and I have a question for you, in summer how warm does your tank get? My room is quite cold and doesn't get ANY sun, as in I have to have a light on in the DAYTIME! Bad for me but perfect for my axies.. And I'm just sussing out whether or not I need a chiller.. Thanks!

Oh and what is a PITA?

PITA (I'm assuming because I call my dog this haha) means pain in the "behind" (ya know... )

I bought the hardness test kit today (API drop test) but I'm not sure how to use it.. It's not a simple add so many drops then match the colour.. I THINK I have to add so many drops, count the drops then match that number..??

Can anybody shed some light for me??
Thanks!

Okay so assuming I did this right,
KH = 71.6
GH = 107.4

The pet store guy said it should be around 150... He showed me some blue crystals that remove minerals or something like that, that increase the hardness. Shall I buy them??

Another question (kinda wish I posted this in the sick section now), what should I feed my axies if they are underweight? As you've heard, they aren't too keen on earthworms, so I wonder if I could feed them beef heart just for a while to bulk them up a bit? Their tummy's aren't the same width as their heads, but quite a bit smaller..

And they LOVE beef heart, they chomp it as soon as it's in the water..

I wouldn't suggest beef, or only in very small amounts to avoid beef poisoning.
I feed my axies with red mosquito larves, but that is not really big enough to support adult axies.
What I use to grow/add weight to them are spiering stint (smelt eperlan)
They come in frozen packages and are basically just small fish.

About the hardness of you water, GH = General hardness, measured by the minarals in your water.
KH = karbonate hardness (forgive me if the translation is a bit bad english)

This karbonate is mostly important for your plants.

You should ask your local aquarium specialist how to upgrade the GH
For PH it's simple, just frequently change your water with normal tap water or if you wanna be really safe distilled (osmose) water.

We have some stuff at the store called Aquapulse GH+ to up water hardness, but I don't think thats sold in Australia, however probably some other brand will

I hope your axie isn't a PITA
And I really recommend the stint / smelt fish

Cheers

I think everyone has covered it Aimz, sorry, i had a busy weekend, didnt log in.

The GH is more relevant to you than the KH.

I go for about > 150 up to about 180

I think Geelong water is about 80-100 from memory. i just use the plain old ordainary goldfish salts - mine are yellow.

Just go easy, change it a tin bit at a time over a week or two - dont try and get it perfect in one hit, or it might swing wildly.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Bren

blackdog said:

I think everyone has covered it Aimz, sorry, i had a busy weekend, didnt log in.

The GH is more relevant to you than the KH.

I go for about > 150 up to about 180

I think Geelong water is about 80-100 from memory. i just use the plain old ordainary goldfish salts - mine are yellow.

Just go easy, change it a tin bit at a time over a week or two - dont try and get it perfect in one hit, or it might swing wildly.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Bren

Click to expand...

Could you give me the name of the goldfish salts?
Thanks for the help!

Guess who's Axies each ate a WORM this afternoon?? YAY! Guess those shrimp a few days ago really enticed their diet!