Fighting Axolotl

I have a male and female adult axies that have lived together happily for many years. Recently the male (Dr Phil) started fighting with the female (Oprah). Maybe it's the seven year itch but I'm wondering if it will continue or will they kiss and make up. So far Oprah's lost the tip of her tail and possibly a broken leg. I have separated them for now but wondering how long to separate them for.

Obviously something has changed and some recent changes for them are shifting to a smaller tank (still plenty big enough, the old tank was massive) and a change in diet. Previous diet was mostly pellets with the occasional frozen bloodworms. Pellets were messy so now feeding strips of beef with bloodworms. They also get the occasional earthworm. I suspect the diet change as Oprah's leg would resemble a strip of beef to a hungry axie. I'm hoping once the new diet is routine that they'll return to normal. Any thoughts?

Murray said:

I have a male and female adult axies that have lived together happily for many years. Recently the male (Dr Phil) started fighting with the female (Oprah). Maybe it's the seven year itch but I'm wondering if it will continue or will they kiss and make up. So far Oprah's lost the tip of her tail and possibly a broken leg. I have separated them for now but wondering how long to separate them for.

Obviously something has changed and some recent changes for them are shifting to a smaller tank (still plenty big enough, the old tank was massive) and a change in diet. Previous diet was mostly pellets with the occasional frozen bloodworms. Pellets were messy so now feeding strips of beef with bloodworms. They also get the occasional earthworm. I suspect the diet change as Oprah's leg would resemble a strip of beef to a hungry axie. I'm hoping once the new diet is routine that they'll return to normal. Any thoughts?

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Please don't feed strips of beef -
It doesn't have any good nutritional value for an axolotl & processing beef fat takes very strong gut acid & enzymes. Earthworms are the best food you can offer.

Post a pic of your tank - do you have lots of hides / plants & escape routes do they can't be cornered? What are the water parameters & temp - was the new tank cycled before putting the axies in?




<3 >o_o< <3

I'll try to get photo loaded tonight. Yes they have a couple of PVC tubes and plastic plants, etc so plenty of cover. The water was cycled. I've never really done water testing so I don't know about ammonia or nitrate levels. I've usually found the less I muck around with the set up the better. It just seems to create it's own environment. I don't even do water changes, just top up any evaporation when needed. As I say they've been happy and healthy for years. Thanks for the advice on the beef. I'll give earthworms as much as possible but sometimes they're hard to find. Any other suggestions for food. The pellets were messy but I still have half a jar so will use that up over time.

Good news is Oprah's looking good. She's using the injured leg so it doesn't appear to be broken just lost a bit of skin.

Evaporation concentrates the nitrates in the water & topping it up is not undoing the issue.

My concern is always - just because the animal seems fine does not mean it may not be suffering - it is the job of every animal owner to make sure we provide them the very best environment & food. With aquariums regular water testing to make sure is essential - tank water is a fine balanced chemistry not guess work. After all the axie can't tell you nor can it top up its water or eliminate the nitrates. I just picked up a rescue axie from a tank with nitrates well over 160 - there are 5 axies in that tank & only 1 affected SO FAR! I'm not going to be surprised when the others go down hill fast would you want to risk your axies health because you think their conditions are optimal? I'm hoping the answer to that is no!

As for food - EARTHWORMS!!!!
Earthworms & some more Earthworms!
they are cheap & easy to find - supplement with a few pellets to use them up but then try feeding the worms - that's all they need to have a well balanced diet



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You mentioned earthworms being hard to find, go to bait shops etc and ask for some there. Also if there's a bunnings local to you, you can buy boxes of 500 and 1000 worms. These can be put into farms or just left in the box (you would add veggie scraps etc. to the box)