Illness/Sickness: Axi not eating, pale gills, and swims on her side...

A few days ago I noticed my golden albino acting a little weird. She was in the corner and didn't come to the glass when I came over. I threw a couple of black worms in and she showed no interest. I noticed instead of her normal fluffy red gills they were very pale. She would flap them with an average of 8-10 second intervals. Water temp is 65F, air stone in the corner, and all of the water levels are good. I decided to put her in the fridge for a few days. it took her 3 days before she started to look better. Then i took the day for the water temps to adjust and reintroduced her to the tank. She still would not eat and after a day looked pale again and withdrawn. 2 nights ago i put her back in the fridge and she had a bowl movement (first one i noticed since this all started). I pulled it out and took a closer look at it. It was dead plants....maybe she thought they were worms and ate them....no big deal....but maybe there are more causing a blockage? Today when i opened the container she stays in while in the fridge she was swimming on her side......getting worried about my girl so wanted to see if anyone might know a cause or can give me a direction in trying to help her.....

thanks in advance and here are some pics of her aquarium and of her currently...



Light is not usually on just during water changes for the babys in the Tupperware cups



she may look dead but i assure you she is still moving around a ton.....just mostly sideways



Her gills in these pictures look better but not 100%

Thanks again for any help provided.....

Her belly looks a bit bulgy, or is it my imagination? Not clear from the photos.

In my opinion, I wouldn't feed an axolotl this size on blackworms, for several reasons. First, it's a rather small food for an animal this size. Second, blackworms are more expensive than nightcrawlers, ounce for ounce. Third, she is likely to ingest sand and plants as she tries to eat the blackworms. The plants in her feces may have been accidentally eaten as she went after blackworms at the bottom of the tank.

I don't know of anything you can do right now except to nurse her along, as you are doing. Keep plant bits cleaned up well in the tank.

She does have a big stomach but it is not wider than her head. I have not fed her for a week took her out of the fridge today. I want to switch to night crawlers but have not set up a tub yet. Black worms don't cost that much but I can understand accidental injestion. As for the sand I thought it was small enough to pass through? Recommend me doing anything else? Keep out of fridge or leave in?

Your best bet would be to keep fridged and lower the water level in the container so she can stand up. It will help her not be stressed out and to recover faster.

It might be difficult to attain that, you have to have to water pretty low, just covering her back - and sometimes even then you'll still find them floating to their sides - but it's worth a shot.

I see a sponge filter in the back corner ? Your tank looks good, is there anything I can't see very well that she could have swallowed ? It's possible she's indigested from the plants, they do get "gas" ! They can usually digest sand, but with something small like blackworms, it might have led to more being taken in than usual.

I buy my nightcrawlers in little deli cups for 12. 12 lasts me more than a month !

Thanks for the reply. No, other than possible plants thats it. I will adjust the water. No lower than 50F correct? I also noticed the veins in the arms are brighter red and the tips of the toes are getting a slight shade of black.....?