I've had my axolotl for 5 days now. He's 5 inches long and absolutely adorable. Before I was feeding him 1 wiggler worm a day cut into three pieces. He thoroughly enjoyed them, but would never come out of his cave and he looked pretty thin. Two days ago I fed him a worm, and tried some blood worms in his food dish. I waited 15 minutes before I'd clean the blood worms out, but he'd keep going back to them. it was pretty late in the evening, so I just decided I've let him eat what he wanted. Well upon waking early the next morning I discovered he ate all the blood worms and boy did he look pretty stuffed and not so skinny anymore.
Yesterday he wouldn't eat. Today we suspect he ate a minnow, for we can't find it anywhere. Searching for the minnow...we lifted up his cave to see if it were in there...and good god I thought I was going to throw up. My boyfriend and I discovered some black stuff and a pretty decent sized black lump under where his hide was. It smells absolutely putrid. We've tried to use a baster and remove what we could. I'm going to take the gravel vac and get the rest after I post this, and also test the water parameters. I will attach some photos.
It's been find of fun because he hasn't been hiding in his cave for 90% of the daylight hours like before. We thought maybe he was getting used to the tank and getting used to us, but now I kinda think he was just bothered by the smell. [I usually check under the cave every day since he gets salt baths daily due to a tail injury, and this is the first time I've seen it.]
And he only ate 1/3rd of a worm today. The other two bits were removed with the gunk.
ARG!
Very nervous about the smell.
Please help!
Yesterday he wouldn't eat. Today we suspect he ate a minnow, for we can't find it anywhere. Searching for the minnow...we lifted up his cave to see if it were in there...and good god I thought I was going to throw up. My boyfriend and I discovered some black stuff and a pretty decent sized black lump under where his hide was. It smells absolutely putrid. We've tried to use a baster and remove what we could. I'm going to take the gravel vac and get the rest after I post this, and also test the water parameters. I will attach some photos.
It's been find of fun because he hasn't been hiding in his cave for 90% of the daylight hours like before. We thought maybe he was getting used to the tank and getting used to us, but now I kinda think he was just bothered by the smell. [I usually check under the cave every day since he gets salt baths daily due to a tail injury, and this is the first time I've seen it.]
And he only ate 1/3rd of a worm today. The other two bits were removed with the gunk.
ARG!
Very nervous about the smell.
Please help!
