Question: Eating sand is it dangerous?

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daremo

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Hi
my female adult axie has been spitting out sand, so she's also been eating it...

Now she's active and hungry but I had to kept her in a container outside of her tank because last week she seemed unwell, trying to swim to the surface for air and struggling to do so.

She's never done this before!
Is it dangerous? should I remove the sand from the tank?
 
its very fine, its the sand used for pool's filters... she's been on sand for like 2 years but now she seems to swallow it and spit it, but probably she's not spitting all of it I'm not sure... :(
 
I keep two axis on sand, and more often then not they eat some sand when they eat their worms. As long as she keeps eating regularly i wouldn't bother worrying. Think about it, if your hungry you put food in your body. Sand or parts of live plants fill the axis stomach up without giving them any nutrition. So feed more often!!!
 
ok! they're not underfed at all! actually I think this started because I gave her too many worms :(
now she's in the fridge to see if she passes food and sand, she seems heavy and has trouble swimming up, should I keep her in the fridge and wait until she poops or put her back in the tank and treat her normally?
 
If the tank is fairly cool (under 18C), I would say put her back in the regular tank. Don't offer food until she improves.
 
it's quite warm today so it's 21 in her tank, that's what she usually is in summer, I'll put her back but she'll probably keep eating sand! how do I stop her, if I don't feed her she eats sand, if I feed her she keeps getting food in that doesn't come out :(
 
I would say that if she eating a lot of sand regularly, you may need to take the sand out and either go bare bottom or find a different sutable substrate. Ive seen a few threads on here where the axie had become a "sand eater" and had to be switched to a barebottom tank.
 
thanks! she never did this before and she eats regularly... I guess I will have to go bare bottom, she seems very uncomfortable swimming and I don't want to risk her.... she's been on sand for a good 2 years and never had this happened :(
She's in the fridge for today until I clean up the tank and maybe she'll pass sand in the meantime...
 
There are other options like a slate bottom, barebottom is just the most simple option.
 
she's been in the fridge for a couple of hours at 16° and she has already eliminated sand...
I guess I'll go bare bottom, is hard to find slate here and the tank is 1.5m !
 
sand removed, the remaining water was very dirty and I had to add a lot of new water...
Now I guess I'll go through a mini-cycle too right? It shouldn't be harmful though since the two filters and the ornaments and plants are back into the tank...
 
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