Axolotl not eating, few concerns

First, I'm sorry if I'm asking something that has already been made clear, but I can't seem to find something that explains exactly where I'm at. Either that or I'm just directly concerned.

So first, the water parameters & conditions. I have a 55 gallon long tank, large river stones with 2 pavestones as a base. No lights, a few broken pots for hiding, and a large marimo ball. Filtration is a 10 gallon (5-6 gallon full) homemade wet/dry sump, with approx 3 gallons of bioballs.

The tank has been established since April, fully cycled and maintaining ideal numbers (amm-0, niti-0, nitra-10-20, ph-8.0) since May.

However, I just had a baby 6 weeks ago and before yesterday I had not done a large water change in these 6 weeks. So, before a 50% water change yesterday my parameters were amm-0, nitri-0, nitra - over 80, pH-8.0. I tested again this morning and parameters were amm-0, nitri-0, nitra-still over 80 (I have trouble differentiating the reds on the test kit) pH-8.0.

Also, I live in Albuquerque, NM, without a chiller the water varies between 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Water is not foggy.

So I pulled them out, into a 5.5 gallon tank I have been trying to grow christmas moss in, it is also fully cycled at amm-0, nitri-0, nitra-20-40, pH-8.0

I completed a 5% change after removing them and pulled my wet/dry, rinsed the bioballs in the pulled tank water, and rinsed the bioball's bucket and wiped/rinsed the heavy film off the inside of the bucket (lightly not scrubbing) in the pulled tank water as well.

Now, I have two axolotls, both hatched around Jan 4th or 5th of this year. One melanoid, one leucistic. Melanoid is perfectly healthy, normally they each eat a 5-6inch Canadian nightcrawler every night with one or two "starve days" per week.

Melanoid has been perfectly healthy, nothing has changed. Leucistic however, not so much. It began 3 days ago, I fed him in the evening, in the morning there was a regurgitated worm. 2 days ago, same thing, he ate a worm in the evening, and I found the worm floating in the morning. Yesterday and today, he refused to eat.

Leucistic's gills look slightly curved forward, but not significantly more than they normally are. Tail is not curled. Still looks a healthy pink, gills a healthy red. I wouldn't say that he's significantly more lethargic than normal, but he is a little more placid. He has been hiding a lot more though.

Melanoid's behavior has not changed, swims quite often, and eats very well.

Okay, now the question. Is it likely the high Nitrates have caused the leucistic to be stressed and all should be better as he recovers in healthier water or should I fridge him?

Any other suggestions?

Sorry this was long, but I felt it was important to be detailed and avoid the back-and-forth game of "is this it?"

In short, fridging should be a last resort. It's stressful for them.

Does he look skinny? Axolotls can survive for quite a long time not eating.
I had a NO3 spike a short while ago, and all but one of my axies went off their food. They soon recovered when I fixed the problem (clogged filter).

The other thing you can try is offering them something different to eat. I find if mine won't eat their usual red worms then waxworms will tempt them, or putting brineshrimp in the tank so they can chase them gives them interest.

auntiejude said:

In short, fridging should be a last resort. It's stressful for them.

Does he look skinny? Axolotls can survive for quite a long time not eating.
I had a NO3 spike a short while ago, and all but one of my axies went off their food. They soon recovered when I fixed the problem (clogged filter).

The other thing you can try is offering them something different to eat. I find if mine won't eat their usual red worms then waxworms will tempt them, or putting brineshrimp in the tank so they can chase them gives them interest.

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Fortunately, he doesn't looks skinny, it has only been 3 days, and he, until that point, has been a very well fed Axolotl.

I was thinking exactly what you said, fix the NO3 issue, and I'll fix the feeding issue.

As far as different food, all I have are frozen bloodworms on hand, I'm going to try some of those next, if not luck there, then I'll try some crickets. They're big enough that I don't think they'd even give interest to brine shrimp.

Thanks for the advice.

From my experience white axies seem to get hit by nitrates harder than the other colours. I lost a lecustic not long ago to nitrate but her three tank mates were fine and now I have a white albino that goes red every time the nitrates hit 40 -.- the wild type he was with is perfectly fine.

Just keep him in clean water for a couple of days and he should start eating again soon.

Okay, I've pulled him from the big tank, which got a 20% change, a 20% change then a 50% change. That got the big tank clear.

In the meantime he was in a 5.5 gallon by himself getting a 90% change daily. His gills are back to normal, he doesn't look stressed, color looks fine. However, he did pass a couple stools this morning, small, but he still hasn't eaten in days. Over a week at this point, I think.

I have attempted to give him a worm each night, no luck. I've also put some bloodworms in each night in a jar, and remove them in the morning, he's not eating them either.

Any suggestions?

Could you try blackworms? They've apparently broken hunger strikes in the past for some users

Blackworms kinda did the trick. Kinda. I put about 1/2-3/4 of an ounce in front of his face, and he ate one or two bites, did the swallowing motions, and hasn't eaten any since. I'm going to keep them in the water for a couple of hours and then pull em out to not get so cloudy (he's by himself in a 5.5 gallon)

Is this normal, starting out eating slowly?