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Really sick axie, please help!

Anubis

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I just got a melanoid axolotl about a week or two ago. They're about two months old (maybe?) but around 2-3 inches. They are kept in a large Tupperware container at 64 deg. Since I'm in the process of cycling a tank, I'm changing the water daily for their tank and their brother/sister's container with dechlorinated water (Yes, they are kept apart).

They've both been very healthy and moving around a lot, as well as eating a lot. Earlier today I changed their water and the melanoid started to show signs of stress (curled tail and curled gills). I ignored it because I thought that he was stressed from being moved. But now, he's floating on his back and not moving. The tail is curled and the gills are curled. I've attached a few pictures. Right now I have a cube of ice in his container (our fridge isn't working). Idk what to do. I hope he's going to be ok :(
 

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virginia

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It could be a multitude of problems. I bought mine not too long ago and I never think the animals especially Axolotls (because its a rare pet) kept in pet shops are in the best shape. Mine were really skinny and I had to treat mine for fungus shortly after I brought him home.

When you're changing the water do you take out the axie? It could be the water current when replacing water? Usually the filpped gills represent a strong current. (so I've read) or it could be due to a disease that it already had while in the pet shop. How are your water temperatures? Temperatures that fluctuate too much will cause an Axie to be stressed aswell.

Anyways hope this helped a little bit and I hope your axie feels better :(

-V
 

Anubis

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Unfortunately the axie passed away not that long after I posted this :\. Idk if it was the current or not. I do take them out of their respective containers, refill the containers, then put the axolotl back in. I could only think it was that, but I have no other way that I know of to change their water unless someone else on the forum has one. I'm also new to the idea of not adding an animal to a tank before it's cycled, so it could be that I changed their water too much (once a day). The temperature has been consistently at 62 for the past 5 days. Before that, it was 63.

I just don't know why they turned like this. I hope I can get an answer because I don't want anything bad to happen to the other one :\.
 

Kaysie

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If you're adding ice to the tanks, I think that could be part of the issue.

By causing such fluctuations in the water temperature, you could be stressing the animal out more than it would be stressed by keeping it at a sub-optimal temperature.

What are you feeding?
 

Anubis

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I'm not adding ice to the tanks. I only added ice last night to bring down the temperature of the water further since my fridge wasn't working. I have central air and that keeps the water temperature within the range that the axolotl needs or needed it to be.

At the time I was feeding it salmon pellets that the breeder gave me. They've been eating them since they were old enough to start eating.
 

Kaysie

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You've been feeding them salmon pellets since they were larvae?

Try offering some other food. Often floating is caused by gas, which can be caused by not having enough food in the belly. How much do you feed? How often?

How warm do you keep the tank?
 
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I think the ice could have contributed. In the picture, he is VERY close to the ice cube(looks like part of it is on his tail even). In such a small container, it is going to rapidly change the temperature, which can be stressful. And being so close to the ice could have chilled him too much...
 

Anubis

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You've been feeding them salmon pellets since they were larvae?

Try offering some other food. Often floating is caused by gas, which can be caused by not having enough food in the belly. How much do you feed? How often?

How warm do you keep the tank?

Alright I'll switch to blood worms ( I do have some frozen ones in the fridge, I'll thaw it down and give them to my other axie). I was feeding 4 pellets every other day but I think I'll start with some blood worms every other day as well.

Like I said, I was feeding it with the food supplied to me by the breeder which he had been feeding them with. Also, they were kept in Tupperware containers at 62 F.
 

Anubis

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I think the ice could have contributed. In the picture, he is VERY close to the ice cube(looks like part of it is on his tail even). In such a small container, it is going to rapidly change the temperature, which can be stressful. And being so close to the ice could have chilled him too much...

**** :(.
 

Kaysie

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If they were kept at 62F, why were you trying to cool them? That seems odd to me.

Try chunks of earthworm. They're much more nutritious than bloodworms, and will probably be more readily accepted.
 

Anubis

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If they were kept at 62F, why were you trying to cool them? That seems odd to me.

Try chunks of earthworm. They're much more nutritious than bloodworms, and will probably be more readily accepted.

Alright, I wasn't trying to cool them. I was trying to cool the sick axolotl because from what I've seen on this forum and online elsewhere that if your axolotl is sick (or potentially sick) you need either a salt bath (depending on the microbe) or throw them in the fridge. Since I didn't see growth of any sort on their body, I figured fridging would work well to slow down their metabolism so they could recover a bit. Since my fridge was not working the only other thing I could think of was ice, which probably didn't help my little guy out since he died a few minutes after I posted this. The other healthy one is still at 62 F.

I can't readily get chunks of earthworm where I am since we have about 2 feet of snow on the ground. Is there a place where I can buy them?

My biggest concern is trying to figure out why it died so I can make sure it doesn't happen to the other one.
 

Kaysie

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Earthworms can be purchased at Walmart, bait shops, or most sporting goods stores.

Not sure what was the matter with the little guy. The questions we ask aren't to be mean or rude, but to get to the bottom of what's wrong. Most questions are fairly blunt as we want to know what happened as quickly as possible so to offer up as many solutions as we can. But hiding information or leaving things out doesn't help either.

I'm sorry your axolotl didn't make it. Hopefully the other one will thrive.
 

Anubis

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Earthworms can be purchased at Walmart, bait shops, or most sporting goods stores.

Not sure what was the matter with the little guy. The questions we ask aren't to be mean or rude, but to get to the bottom of what's wrong. Most questions are fairly blunt as we want to know what happened as quickly as possible so to offer up as many solutions as we can. But hiding information or leaving things out doesn't help either.

I'm sorry your axolotl didn't make it. Hopefully the other one will thrive.

I'll see what I find at bait shops and sporting good stores then. Sorry, I thought I was clear enough in previous posts (i.e. temperature, where they were kept, why I put ice in his container, etc). Ask away if anything else is missing or confusing.
 

Jzehr125

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I'm sorry about your little one, and I hope your other axie does fine. One thing I noticed that no one else mentioned was that (if I interpret the picture correctly) the ice cube was directly in the water. Was the ice made from dechlorinated/treated water? If it was just a tap water ice cube, perhaps the chlorine/other tap water additives leaked into the tank as the ice cube melted, and in such a small container, was too high of a concentration. Not sure if that would have done it or not.

Again, I'm sorry for your loss, and I wish you the best. At least you still have the other one. Hopefully he/she remains healthy for you, and lives a long time. He/she is also lucky to have an owner who cares enough to get to the root of a problem to try and keep it healthy, rather than doing the whole "oh, it's just an animal" or "oh, it'll be fine" routine.
 

Anubis

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I'm sorry about your little one, and I hope your other axie does fine. One thing I noticed that no one else mentioned was that (if I interpret the picture correctly) the ice cube was directly in the water. Was the ice made from dechlorinated/treated water? If it was just a tap water ice cube, perhaps the chlorine/other tap water additives leaked into the tank as the ice cube melted, and in such a small container, was too high of a concentration. Not sure if that would have done it or not.

Again, I'm sorry for your loss, and I wish you the best. At least you still have the other one. Hopefully he/she remains healthy for you, and lives a long time. He/she is also lucky to have an owner who cares enough to get to the root of a problem to try and keep it healthy, rather than doing the whole "oh, it's just an animal" or "oh, it'll be fine" routine.

No it wasn't! To be honest, I panicked and I grabbed the first thing I could think of that would bring down the temperature in their container. I'm not sure that would be enough to kill it but it could be a possibility? All depends on what other members think about that?
 

Jzehr125

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I probably would've accidentally done the same thing myself, and only thought about it later. I'm no expert, so I don't know exactly if that would have been enough to do it, but it is a possibility, I assume, unless the other axie had an ice cube as well. If there was an ice cube in his/her container as well, and he/she's fine now, then that probably isn't the cause. I wish you the best! I know how frustrating it is to not know why something went wrong.
 

Anubis

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No, the other one wasn't given an ice cube at all. Either way he/she is doing fine, which is good.
 
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