Se
New member
Hello.
Thank you ahead of time for any help. I will try to post any pertinent information. Basically, as there are no amphibian vets in my area, I have been trying to care for a 2-year-old female axolotl who often refuses to eat and has been steadily but slowly losing weight for about a month, maybe a bit longer. Aside from the weight loss, I haven't been able to see any obvious issues with her. I would like input on if people think she may be ill, or if this is a problem due to her bad genetics. The breeder I got her from has also been trying to help, and suspects either simply bad genetics or perhaps an inner bacterial problem. I bought Fuan-2 but have not given it to my axolotl yet as it arrived today, and I'm trying to find a way to partition out the doses to a proper size (one packet is for a 10-gallon tank).
Suspected Problems:
1) She could just be on her way out; as I have attached pictures showing, she was malformed, and adopted under the understanding that she would likely fail to thrive or might die. She never grew in her front legs beyond stumps, and grew some odd lumps on her body that never changed or got worse. As she is a result of a breeder getting an inbred line (without their knowledge of it being one, from another breeder), I understood that all this might happen.
2) She may have some disease that she is showing no signs of. I can't find anything physically different about her, and besides her not eating, she has shown no other signs of illness or stress that I can see. Her gills seem a bit paler than usual, but not fuzzy or like there is any fungus there.
Feeding:
I have tried feeding her sinking carnivorous pellets, salmon pellets, and thawed blood worms. All have been (dis)regarded equally. Usually, she shows no interest in food, and has never been a vicarious eater, but about once a week, she will eat (usually followed by a day of snapping at food and then spitting it out immediately). She's never been a vicarious eater, and often skipped feedings, so I didn't begin to worry until her weight loss became clear it was not a phase she was going through.
Housing:
She currently is in a plastic container on her own so I can monitor her food intake, but used to live in a 27-gallon acrylic tank with 2 other axolotls of roughly her size (her brother and another male juvenile axolotl). About 3 months ago, I had major surgery, and I will admit the tank quality slipped during that time for about 2 weeks, due to a rise in nitrates from food being left out for a couple days. It has since been balanced out via better cleaning, tank changes, and some special tank solution designed to lower nitrate levels. I do partial water changes every week or occasionally every two weeks on the large tank,depending on the water quality, and the small one every other day. Temperature has been around 67-68ºF.
Thank you ahead of time for any help. I will try to post any pertinent information. Basically, as there are no amphibian vets in my area, I have been trying to care for a 2-year-old female axolotl who often refuses to eat and has been steadily but slowly losing weight for about a month, maybe a bit longer. Aside from the weight loss, I haven't been able to see any obvious issues with her. I would like input on if people think she may be ill, or if this is a problem due to her bad genetics. The breeder I got her from has also been trying to help, and suspects either simply bad genetics or perhaps an inner bacterial problem. I bought Fuan-2 but have not given it to my axolotl yet as it arrived today, and I'm trying to find a way to partition out the doses to a proper size (one packet is for a 10-gallon tank).
Suspected Problems:
1) She could just be on her way out; as I have attached pictures showing, she was malformed, and adopted under the understanding that she would likely fail to thrive or might die. She never grew in her front legs beyond stumps, and grew some odd lumps on her body that never changed or got worse. As she is a result of a breeder getting an inbred line (without their knowledge of it being one, from another breeder), I understood that all this might happen.
2) She may have some disease that she is showing no signs of. I can't find anything physically different about her, and besides her not eating, she has shown no other signs of illness or stress that I can see. Her gills seem a bit paler than usual, but not fuzzy or like there is any fungus there.
Feeding:
I have tried feeding her sinking carnivorous pellets, salmon pellets, and thawed blood worms. All have been (dis)regarded equally. Usually, she shows no interest in food, and has never been a vicarious eater, but about once a week, she will eat (usually followed by a day of snapping at food and then spitting it out immediately). She's never been a vicarious eater, and often skipped feedings, so I didn't begin to worry until her weight loss became clear it was not a phase she was going through.
Housing:
She currently is in a plastic container on her own so I can monitor her food intake, but used to live in a 27-gallon acrylic tank with 2 other axolotls of roughly her size (her brother and another male juvenile axolotl). About 3 months ago, I had major surgery, and I will admit the tank quality slipped during that time for about 2 weeks, due to a rise in nitrates from food being left out for a couple days. It has since been balanced out via better cleaning, tank changes, and some special tank solution designed to lower nitrate levels. I do partial water changes every week or occasionally every two weeks on the large tank,depending on the water quality, and the small one every other day. Temperature has been around 67-68ºF.