Illness/Sickness: Heat Stress, HELP PLEASE!

Hello,
I posted earlier about my axie living in a tank with a high temp...like an idiot i decided to move him to a smaller tank with ice bottles which i changed out and this resulted in DRASTIC temperature changes which has made him worse than he was in the warmer tank. When he began refusing food i moved him to the bigger, warmer tank with various cooling methods which together are keeping the temp down to about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. He became extremely stressed in the smaller tank and i began the set up for fridging him but now that he's in the 70 degree tank im afraid to move him to the cold of the fridge for fear of killing him. Please help me, he's my first Axie and i just love him to pieces. I dont want him to die!

-Bri

A slow gradual decrease is prefered.

What I would suggest is to get a tub (big enough for your axie to stretch out, and small enough to fit in fridge)

Fridging will cause the animals metabolic rate to slow.
Please be careful.
If it is too warm in the tank, the jump from tank to fridge may shock him, which can be fatal.

I can suggewst removing him, and placing the tub in a cool area to let it stablise slowly, then once its cooler you can fridge him.

Aaron

Bigger volumes of water are easier to maintain temperature in. Limit any lighting, even fluorescent fixtures generate a bit of heat. Sudden temperature changes are just as dangerous as high heat. It's better to cool a tank slowly than drastically. 70F is not that high for an axolotl. It is warm, but still within range. If the tank has a solid lid, like glass or plastic, replace it with a screen top. Evaporation will help to keep things cool.
Axolotls will go off of food from time to time, it is not necessarily an emergency, yet.

What are you feeding him? Big fat juicy worms are best, most axolotls cannot resist them.

Have your tanks been cycled properly?

Caudata Culture has quite a bit on cooling down your critters. I highly suggest you read the articles there. A good read is axolotl.org also. Even if you have read both sites before, sometimes a good refresher helps. I still refer to both sites daily myself.

In the immortal words of the greatest book never written: Don't Panic!

I've been feeding him earthworms, which i break into pieces about as big as his head is wide, and he has never refused food. I'm a poor college student, so i cant afford to buy the ammonia test kits they sell at the pet store, its like $12 (USA) for 25 strips, and ive been searching for cheaper ones elsewhere. I have a carbon filter which i clean and change every once in a while, to cut down on ammonia and i use dechlorinator whenever i add new water. I'm not sure what cycling is exactly.

-Bri

Additionally, should i leave him in the big tank for like 24hrs before trying the fridging in order to not stress him any more right now?

You should read this then:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles_axolotl.shtml

Okay...that might be a problem. When i got him i had the tank set up for almost three months with only a plecostamus (spelling?) in it...a couple of days before i started having these problems i decided to clean the tank and realized i would have to do a 100% clean to get everything washed out. I used the same filter and plants and a piece of log from the original tank but i dumped out all of the water from the old tank and rinsed the gravel. This might have messed up with the nitrogen cycle which could only be adding to my problems.

-Bri

Agreed. I suspect your issue is less temperature and more water chemistry.

Hi Bri,

First thing have a look here Caudata Culture & the Axolotl site

These two sites have the answers to all your questions and much more.

Second thing, what is your axolotl doing to make you think it is suffering from heat stress. It is likely that the tank moves and radical temperature changes have put your axolotl off its food.

Axolotls can go for a long time with out eating months in fact. So not eating for several days is not neccessarily a big issue but it usually does suggest that the axolotl is not entirely happy.

It is important to know what is going on with your water parameters, if you cant afford a test kit then most petshops will conduct a test if you take them a water sample.

I tend to agree with Johnny, but it would help to know the symptoms.

Good luck