Twesh
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I've got a mature male axolotl who has had a tough time of it the last few weeks. We had an unfortunate ammonia spike (human error) and his tank cycle crashed. We moved him into his old smaller tank with fresh dechlorinated water and have been doing daily water changes while his old tank recycles again. His bigger tank is sand bottom with some live plants and his smaller is bare bottom with nothing in it at the moment.
A few days later and we started noticing symptoms of constipation (swollen cloaca, inability to sink, and arching his back). We started fridging (around 5C) and within an hour he threw up part of an earthworm. We kept him in the fridge with daily changes for a week and saw his symptoms go away, but no further vomit or any poop. By the end we saw he was looking like he was hunting for food and he took a small bit of offered worm, so we began to reacclimatise him to his tank temperature and we moved him back to the smaller tank and have not seen the return of any symptoms of constipation. Except last night his appetite took a tank and he's not interested in eating at all, on top of us still not seeing any poop since we initially had to move him out of his normal tank for the ammonia spike despite being fed a few times since.
Has anyone else had their axolotl lose some appetite during a stressful situation like this? I can't imagine this has all been enjoyable for him. I'm concerned he's still constipated despite his only symptom right now being no appetite but I don't want to needlessly fridge him either, especially since that's not going to help the lack of appetite. TY <3 any advice is appreciated. We've already got plans to try a few different food items and see if he's just being picky and moody.
A few days later and we started noticing symptoms of constipation (swollen cloaca, inability to sink, and arching his back). We started fridging (around 5C) and within an hour he threw up part of an earthworm. We kept him in the fridge with daily changes for a week and saw his symptoms go away, but no further vomit or any poop. By the end we saw he was looking like he was hunting for food and he took a small bit of offered worm, so we began to reacclimatise him to his tank temperature and we moved him back to the smaller tank and have not seen the return of any symptoms of constipation. Except last night his appetite took a tank and he's not interested in eating at all, on top of us still not seeing any poop since we initially had to move him out of his normal tank for the ammonia spike despite being fed a few times since.
Has anyone else had their axolotl lose some appetite during a stressful situation like this? I can't imagine this has all been enjoyable for him. I'm concerned he's still constipated despite his only symptom right now being no appetite but I don't want to needlessly fridge him either, especially since that's not going to help the lack of appetite. TY <3 any advice is appreciated. We've already got plans to try a few different food items and see if he's just being picky and moody.