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Illness/Sickness: Possible issue!

Garrawr

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Hey everyone.
I have recently become an owner of 5 juvenile axolotls, one of each colour variety.

My albino (Albus) was perfectly fine yesterday, but I woke up today to see that one of his front limbs is somewhat mangled. He isn't using it to crawl or swim. It isn't too severely mangled but it is noticable.

I am unsure of how I should deal with this injury. I'm not particularly certain of the cause, but I suspect he got it stuck in the filter intake on one of his many swim-bys and jerked the wrong way to get it out.

The filter isn't that strong, but I have seem him stop mid swim to "chill" near it in the past.

I am also concerned that it may have been one of my other axolotls, however I have never seen them do anything remotely aggressive to one another, but you never know.



TL;DR: I have a somewhat injured juvenile axolotl in a tank with 4 other healthy axolotls, I'm unsure of the cause. Is there is any special steps I should take?

I should also note that Albus' appetite remains unhindered. Thanks in advance!
 

PandaHuggaz

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Well, if it is your filter you could always block it off with a tank seperator. Maybe place the filter on one of the smaller sides so it wouldn't take much space on the tank.

If it was an attack, which I personally think is most likely is, and you don't want to seperate all of them, try to keep them in a darker area so that they can't see eachother as well, and will have a lower chance of hurting eachother.

I would fridge the axolotl so that he could heal faster. When you fridge axolotls, make sure to change their water AT LEAST once, if not twice a day. And he might not be that hungry because when you fridge them, their organs shut down (or sumptin like that).

But even when it heals, I'm not sure if it will heal well... If it got bit or ripped off, it would grow back fine.

Hope this helps!
 

Garrawr

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Thanks for the response! I will definitely consider fridging him, although today when I checked on him the leg looks quite a bit better and he's now using it to walk.

The filter is in the very corner of the tank so its quite out of the way. As for light, the tank is quite dark as it is heavily vegitated with plants (yay java ferns) so the only time they really see each other is if its feeding time.

I have a mini bar fridge in my basement, I think what I'll do is set up my small 10 gal fish tank, wait for it to settle and put it in the fridge and move him into it.

I'm a little concerned that the moving could stress him a lot, especially since today he is using his leg for doggy-paddling and walking now, it makes me hesitant if he is healing on his own.
 

Bdyoung

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When one of my juvie axies was attacked its foot was very mangled and bent the opposite way. I did absolutely nothing and even left him with the other tank mates and it healed 100%. Although I keep my tanks cooler than most people. It's usually around 60-62 degrees fahrenheit and sometimes even colder in the winter.
 

PandaHuggaz

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If you are going to fridge him, the ten gallon tank isn't necessary. I just use a plastic container about the size of a shoe box and put them in the fridge. It'll be less for him to move around and will also be less hectic for you to deal with :)
 
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